Close Your Eyes to See
by Shadow of a Fallen Angel
Summary: Nope, this is not a songfic, though it is a good song. Twins from Konoha must close their eyes on their village in order to see love DeidaraxOC, SasorixOC slight NarutoxHinata rated T for language.
1. Prologue

**A/N: The usual disclaimer: We do not own the Naruto/Akatsuki characters…if we did *rubs hands together evilly.* We do however own our OCs. This disclaimer covers all future chapters. **

**I say we because the story, whilst written by me, has ideas not only from myself but from my younger sister. Now…On with the fic!**

The hospital room was a hive of activity. Nothing quite like this had ever happened in Konoha before. Twin girls were being born, and they were conjoined. This was not all. The twin girls, who were now sleeping peacefully, had a demon inside of their joined bodies.

A medical ninja had seen this right away and had made the preparations to separate the girls, therefore separating the demon that lived inside of them so that its destructive power would be reduced.

The medical ninja assembled a quick team of other medics and they quickly woke the children, separating them with chakra and quickly closing the wounds. No-one outside of the hospital, except for the Hokage would know of the secret of the demon within them, not even the girls would know.

On their 12th birthday, their mother, unable to hold the secret any longer, told the girls the truth of their past.

~6 years later~

Deep in one of the many rooms of the feared Akatsuki's lair, a meeting was being held.

All the members of the Akatsuki were present, silently awaiting their latest orders.

"I have received word," A voice, coming from a man shrouded in shadows, stated "that there are two jinchuuriki living in the Village Hidden in the Leaves."

A man not too far away smirked knowingly.

"They, although powerful and _extremely _dangerous, happen to know the location of the Kyuubi jinchuuriki. I want them brought here, _alive _preferably, as soon as possible."

"Yes, leader-sama!" They replied in unison.

"Tobi is a good boy!" could be heard in the background, followed closely by "SHUT UP TOBI!" The leader dismissed them and they set out to capture their targets.

"Do you think they can handle them Pein?" A female asked.

The leader, Pein, thought about this. "They are all extremely good shinobi." He said. "However, we shall join the search ourselves. Just to make sure nothing dangerous happens."

The female nodded.

"Try and track them Konan." Pein ordered.

Konan did as she was asked, or rather, ordered, and they departed the lair together.


	2. Introducing: The Twins

**A/N: Okay. Chapter 1 is here. Oh wow authors notes are so BORING. Needs to be spruced up xD. Anywho, on with the fic xD. **

**You (if you are a mighty boosh fan) will recognise some lines we've taken, and therefore we must give credit to Noel and Julian, or just Vince and Howard, for their awesomeness. For they are awesome. So awesome their enemies go blind from overexposure to pure awesomeness. (Thanks Kung-Fu Panda ^^)**

Telenei and Mikari tiptoed down a small alley, watching for their target. Telenei motioned to Mikari and Mikari turned left, while Telenei turned right and stood up against the fence near the Ramen shop.

"Ok Hinata. Today's the day." Mikari prompted. "Today you're gonna bag Naruto Uzumaki! Today you become a woman!" She pumped her fist in the air, a determined gleam in her eye. "I–I'm not sure about that Mikari-san." Hinata stuttered, a blush forming on her cheeks. "Don't give me that negative attitude!" Mikari said still full of aforementioned determination. "You're gonna go out there and knock him dead." For emphasis she punched the nearby fence and knocked it to the ground, not taking notice of the man sitting on the toilet behind it. "I'll try my best. For Naruto-kun!" Hinata said.

"That's more like it!" Mikari stated. "Now let's go bag some boys!"

"_Target in sight. Naruto Uzumaki at 12 o'clock." _ Telenei sent the mental message to her twin. _"Roger that! Hinata is prepped and ready!" _Mikari sent back.Telenei pushed herself off the fence, running one hand along the headband tied at her neck. "Naruto-kun!" She called, putting on her best innocent voice and waving him over. "Huh? Telenei-chan?" Naruto said walking over, his hands behind his head. "What is it?"

"Naruto, I think you should take a walk with me." She said casually.

"Uh, actually, I was just gonna go get some ramen." He said rubbing his hair with one of his hands. Telenei's eye twitched. "No, Naruto, you really should take a walk with me." She said, emphasizing the words with a kunai pointed at him. She could see why this job had fallen to her, she could be quite scary and forceful when she wanted to be. "Okay, okay." Naruto agreed quickly.

"I thought you'd see it my way. I might treat you to a bowl afterwards." She saw Naruto's face light up.

"_Okay Mikari, I am bringing the bee to the honey!" _Telenei sent in their made up mental code. _"Roger that, the honey is waiting for the bee." _ Mikari replied. Telenei led Naruto down the back alleys. "Uh, where are we going?" Naruto asked. "You'll see Naruto. You'll see." She turned two more corners before turning left to the awaiting girls. "Naruto, Telenei, how nice to see you on such a fine day!" Mikari exclaimed with a wink at Hinata, who nodded her head. "We, uh, have to go and see, um, Tsunade now." Mikari said, quickly thinking up a reason to leave. "You know how that cranky old woman is…" Telenei added, catching on.

The two girls left them and hid behind the nearest bush, watching to see what Hinata would do. "N-Naruto-kun," she began nervously, "I-I l-like you." She stammered, a deep red blush forming on her cheeks. "Keep it cool Hinata." Mikari whispered under her breath. "Remember your training!" Naruto rubbed the back of his head. That was the last thing he was expecting. "Uh, Hinata I…" He trailed off.

"I swear if he doesn't tell her he likes her too…" Telenei threatened.

"I kinda like you too, I guess…" He said with a light blush. "Hey, you wanna go get some ramen…I mean uh…go to a café." He said, changing tack as a shuriken whizzed past his head, missing his face by inches. Telenei and Mikari watched as they walked off together, Hinata holding on to Naruto's arm. They waited until the coast was clear before walking out from behind the bush and straightening up. "Woo! Telenei and Mikari strike again!" Mikari said happily, pumping her fist into the air once again. "Naw, they're so cute together!" Telenei conceded.

"Well now what?" Mikari asked, scratching the back of her head. "Ah I know. We should go and see Sasuke-kun!"

"Hmm, sounds like a plan." Telenei agreed.

"What's eating you?" Telenei asked clapping Sasuke on the shoulder.

"Nothing." He mumbled.

"Don't lie to me, boy!" Mikari said as she sat down beside him. "I know what you're thinking. You're thinking here comes Old Gregg. He's a scaly man-fish!" Sasuke chuckled. "Sure, that was exactly what I was thinking…" he said with a roll of his eyes. "So, what's the problem?" Telenei asked. Sasuke let out a sigh. "I'll never be strong enough to beat him. I don't have enough hate."

"You have plenty of hate." Telenei responded, tapping him lightly on the back of the head. "Too much if I do say so myself." Mikari said. "Don't worry about it Sasuke-kun. You'll kick his ass in no time. We know you can."

"Yeah, we'll be cheering for you." Telenei added.

"And you know what we always say…When life gives you lemons, throw them at Sakura!" Mikari said, pulling a lemon out of her pouch and handing it to him. "Go have some fun."

"Uh thanks." Sasuke said, laughing slightly. "I gotta go." He said, getting up and walking away.

"Well that's our good deed done for today." Telenei said with a sigh, dusting off her hands on her skirt. "Yup. It is." Mikari said. "And now I'm bored."

"To the slot machines!" Telenei said striking a pose. The pair of them walked off to the gambling hall, laughing about Tsunade's bad fortune when it came to gambling. "Oi, oi, go back for the cherries!" Mikari called.

Later that night the pair returned to the apartment, much richer than when they had started up. "Ha, Tsunade is going to be so jealous!" Mikari said with a triumphant voice. "Oh she is going to be pissed." Telenei agreed with a smirk as she sat down to some instant ramen. "We'll go shove it in her face tomorrow." Mikari said with a shrug. Telenei nodded as the pair readied themselves for bed. They needed to get a good night's rest before tomorrow's mission to the village hidden in the Sand.


	3. The Village Hidden in the Sand

**A/N: I've said it before I'll say it again. Author's notes are boring. But this time they're necessary however. I want to explain, that, due to some annoying circumstances, and what we feel to be good ideas, we've had to warp the timeline of the story slightly. **

**Some of the events that are going to happen in this chapter happen in the Shipuuden series of Naruto, but, as mentioned in the last chapter…unfortunately for us, there are people still around that should by rights be off training with Orochimaru… *cough* Sasuke *cough*. **

**Anyway, the story is finally coming together ^^**

Telenei waited for the sound of the alarm, switching it off as it blared to life, knowing Mikari wouldn't hear it anyway. As long as one girl remained awake the power of the demon wouldn't be unleashed. Needless to say Mikari usually got the sleep. It was still slightly dark outside; the rising sun had lightened the sky, streaking the far horizon with tinges of orange and pink. Telenei took a small moment to take this all in before she gently shook her sister awake. "C'mon Mikari. Time to wake up sleepyhead."

"Nnnn f'koff." She said, rolling back over. Telenei sighed and shook her more violently, waking the girl up. "We've got a mission remember." Telenei reminded. "Mission Schmission." Mikari wasn't much of a morning person.

"Tsunade is going to kick our asses if we're late, now get up." Telenei said with a hint of frustration as she pulled the blanket off her sister's bed.

The pair ate a quick breakfast and grabbed their pouches on the way out the door. "I'm gonna kill Tsunade." Mikari stated grumpily. "Always sending us out so bloody early."

They stood outside of the Hokage's office before Mikari knocked once on the door and entered, regardless of whether Tsunade was ready for them or not. "Alright, what's this mission about? Hurry up and tell us so we can get moving." Tsunade eyed Mikari tiredly before answering. "I'm sending you to the Village Hidden in the Sand to meet the new Kazekage and make sure that our peace treaty is still secure."

"Hn, doesn't sound too hard." Telenei said, ignoring the mutterings of her sister ("Someone's been spending too much time with Sasuke"). "I suppose we'd better get going if we hope to make it there any time soon." Tsunade nodded at the pair, indicating that they were dismissed. They left her office and headed to the gates after taking a quick stop in at the supermarket to grab some food supplies.

"_Be on guard." _Telenei warned.

"_There could be ninja anywhere I know…" _Mikari said, sweeping the area over quickly to check for threats. That was the advantage of mental communication…silent but deadly. "_That old woman is going to hear about this."_ Mikari protested. Telenei nodded once in agreement. She liked her sleep far too much for early morning missions.

After a few solid days of uneventful travelling, the girls had neared the Sand Village. _"I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with…T." _Mikari thought.

"_Hmm, lemme guess, tree." _Telenei replied. The days of travelling had bored them into playing I Spy. _"Ok, Ok, now it's my turn! I spy, with my little eye, something beginning with…S." _

"_Huh, something beginning with S?"_

"_Yup."_

"_Uhm," _Mikari looked around, trying to find the thing starting with S that her sister had apparently spied. _"Ohhh, the Sand Village, right?" _She asked with a knowing expression. Telenei nodded and the girls slowed their pace.

The twins approached the village by foot, walking slowly so that the ninja keeping guard over the village wouldn't think that they were a threat and take them out before they even had a chance to complete their mission. They stopped in front of the gates, announcing their presence to the ninja, saying that they have a meeting with the Kazekage.

They took a short amount of time to examine the village as they had never been here before. "That way." Mikari said, pointing at the large building. Telenei nodded and they swiftly approached.

An assistant showed them the way to the office. "Kazekage-sama, the ninja from the leaf village are here to see you." She announced through the door.

"Send them in." A familiar voice called back. Telenei and Mikari shot a quick look at each other before the assistant opened the door and showed them through. "GAARA!" Mikari yelled loudly, running over and embracing the surprised man. Telenei planted the heel of her palm onto her forehead before smiling widely at Gaara. "Long time no see Gaara." She said, shaking his hand, preferring not to latch on to him as her twin had just done. "Tsunade sent us to check up on the peace treaty and all that." Mikari said with a wave of her hand.

"The peace treaty will remain intact as long as neither side does anything to violate it." Gaara said, sounding way too professional.

"Awesome." Mikari said with a smile as Telenei leaned against the wall.

"So, how is everyone back in the Leaf Village?" Gaara asked.

"Well, Naruto is the same as always." Telenei said with a light shrug. "Always causing mischief." She figured that Naruto would be who Gaara really wanted to ask about.

Mikari stood looking through the round window, looking up as a giant white bird flew overhead. 'Well that seems out of place.' She thought to herself.

"_You should come see this." _Mikari said, not wanting to worry Gaara. Telenei stepped inconspicuously toward the window and looked out of it. _"That doesn't look right."_ Telenei conceded. _"Perhaps we should get a closer look…_" Mikari moved her head slightly as a nod. "Excuse us Gaara, we haven't eaten for two days so we're really quite hungry…we'll drop by again soon." Telenei said quickly, before Mikari might say anything. Gaara nodded and Telenei ushered Mikari out of the room.

"I don't know what that was," Mikari began "but it sure is suspicious."

"Lets go find out what it is alright?" Telenei said, suppressing a shudder. They walked out of the building and went, as they said they would, to a food place. It was true that they hadn't eaten for two days, and they wanted to be able to perform to their best if it came to a fight. "Lets hope it doesn't come to that." Telenei thought out loud, thinking of their possibilities.

After they ate they went to the top of the nearest building, getting as high up as they possibly could so that they could get a closer inspection of the bird that was following them. Mikari lightly tapped Telenei's arm and pointed toward the back of the bird. There was a person on it. Telenei could barely make out the hair.

An explosion nearby caught their attention and the pair quickly rushed back to the Kazekage's office. "Gaara, something's out there." Telenei said, after Mikari had burst in rather rudely. Gaara nodded in acknowledgement, his back to the twins as he looked out of the window. "Will you fight with us?" he asked, turning only his head back to look at the girls. Both of them nodded firmly. "Anything to help out an old friend." Mikari said, giving Gaara a thumbs up before the pair rushed from the room.

Back on the rooftop the bird seemed to be loosing pieces of itself, watching as white things dropped from the side. "Uh-uh, they're not part of the bird." Telenei said, seeing as they got closer that the man atop it was dropping them. "Wh…What is that thing?"


	4. Protecting the Village

**A/N: So here we are again with chapter three. So what if it's a bit slow moving but things pick up from here, I promise. Some of the details may be kinda sketchy, but its been a while since I laid eyes on this particular episode of Shipuuden. That and I'm kind of warping the storyline by adding our OCs so yah…on a random note…I smell…soap…?**

Telenei and Mikari looked up at the huge bird as they stood on the rooftop. "We need to think out a plan of action." Mikari stated, switching instantly to serious mode. 'Obviously.' Telenei thought with a roll of her eyes. "Well, we need to take out whoever is on the back of that bird." Mikari continued, missing her sister's gesture. "Yeah, but how? And there may be more than one. We could be in over our heads here." Telenei replied, crossing her arms across her chest; something she always did when she was deep in thought. "A direct approach isn't going to work. They'll see through that in a second and that could get one of us…or both of us killed. Trying to sneak may not work either, that probably wouldn't end well, not to mention it's a moving target." Telenei muttered under her breath trying to plan fast. "It would help if we knew what they wanted, 'cause clearly they aren't here for tea, biscuits and a nice chat." She tilted her head to the side, eyeing Mikari. "So what do you think?"

"I think you _really_ have been spending too much time with Sasuke."

"Be serious would you?"

"We stand a better chance if one of us could distract them for a minute while the other snuck up." She said.

"Better." Telenei complimented. "A direct and sneak attack combined…it might work…always seems to work for Naruto…then again we aren't Naruto…damn goofball gets away with anything." Telenei rested a hand on her chin.

"Alright, let's get moving then…we have to protect the Sand Village."

The girls leapt across the rooftops, refining their plan as they jumped. They stopped near he Kazekage's building, staring at the sight in front of them. "Ok, so now we know it's a him, so, lets get over there and help Gaara already!" Mikari was clearly getting impatient and it was very clear to Telenei that she just wanted to kick some ass. They quickly hopped over to the building to help Gaara, coming face to face with both the man and the giant bird. _"We might have to change that plan a little." _Telenei sent with a small grimace.

"_Damn that bird…I don't think it even is a bird…but damn it's huge! I guess we might need to come up with something else." _Mikari responded quickly. If the blonde man was surprised to see them he didn't show it. A slight smirk crossed his features. "How about that? Three targets in the one spot, un. It doesn't get easier than this." He muttered to himself. "Sasori-no-Danna will be happy about this." Telenei and Mikari both looked to Gaara before quickly focusing their eyes again on the man in front of them. They each grabbed some form of weaponry and got ready to fight. "You know, it's a pity he isn't here for tea and biscuits cause he is damn hot." Mikari said with a shrug. Telenei stifled a laugh and nodded.

They braced themselves as the bird took off again, sending a rush of air toward them. Mikari shot a quick look to Telenei, who nodded once. They took off in different directions, Telenei heading straight for the bird and Mikari leaping across the rooftops to launch another attack.

Telenei landed on the bird and noticed at once that it wasn't a real bird; it was made from a much squishier substance. She eyed it with distaste before pulling out a kunai and throwing it the blonde headed man. She wasn't surprised to see him block it. After all, it was only her job to keep him busy. She threw a couple of Shuriken, one of them managing to graze his arm before she landed a punch to the gut. The man grabbed her hand and twisted her arm, causing her to wince as she could feel the bone beginning to fracture. _"A…little…help?" _She shot, her mental voice not disguising the tension she was feeling. She glowered at the man before kicking him in the head, making him release her arm as she flipped over, landing crouched. _"On my way." _Mikari sent back. Telenei remained crouched for a minute, panting heavily as she glared at the blonde madman. "Getting tired un?" he asked with a smirk.

"You wish." Telenei replied angrily, straightening up. She flashed a quick look over his shoulder. The man took this momentary distraction to throw some shuriken at her. She exploded into a puff of sand, having quickly used the substitution jutsu. She landed back on the bird quickly, her hand twitching toward her arm as a shot of pain lanced through it.

The man gasped when a kunai pierced his arm. Telenei smirked. "_Nice timing Mikari." _ Mikari came in from behind, kicking him, sending him face first into Telenei's fun-bags. "Ergh Get off me!" She screamed. Mikari made a little bow before quickly straightening up as Telenei pushed him off her boobs. He wiped some blood from his mouth, still smirking. This didn't look good, and both twins knew it. _"What is he getting at?" _Mikari asked, her brow furrowing slightly. _"I don't know…" _Telenei replied. _"But I don't think it will be pretty." _The man made a few a few hand signs, shouting "Katsu!" as something exploded near Telenei's feet, sending her flying backward off the bird, slamming her against a nearby wall. "Shit." She cursed, coughing up a speck of blood. "That was actually pretty…bastard."

"_Telenei are you ok?" _ Mikari asked, a worried edge creeping into her mental voice. _"Yeah I'll be ok, just hold him off for a while if you can…" _She replied a little breathlessly. She saw sand gathering around and smiled weakly. _"It seems our good buddy Gaara has decided to help out. Looks like you won't be fending him off by yourself after all." _She sent with a relieved sigh. She took the time to wipe some blood from her mouth before blacking out.

Mikari continued to land kicks punches and a few stabs at the man after he had somehow managed to blow her sister off the bird. She knew she'd be able to keep him off for a while on her own but not enough to defeat him by herself, especially after she felt Telenei's consciousness leave her. She let out a growl of frustration as she was punched backward. She blocked a few more hits, her feet sliding back with each strike she blocked. He sent a particularly powerful kick that she only just failed to block and it sent her falling off the bird.

She smiled lightly as her fall was cut short by some sand. She sent a rock sign of thanks (\m/) to Gaara before springing up and trying to fight him again. She was getting slightly worn out although she didn't want to admit it. The man was stronger than she'd first anticipated. She continued to fight with her kunai so she had a better chance of landing some lasting damage. Soon she was panting from so much exertion. She clasped her hands together and executed a series of hand signs before shouting "Ice Daggers." She stretched her hand outward and shot numerous shards of ice in the blonde man's direction. He managed to doge a few, but one caught him in the right shoulder. He grunted, gripping the ice and ripping what was left of it out of his shoulder. "That wasn't very nice, un." He commented.

"No one ever said I had to be nice." She said sticking out her tongue childishly and sending another wave of ice daggers at her opponent, one catching in his leg.

The man was distracted from Mikari by the large amount of sand encasing his arm. Mikari smirked as the sand hardened and crushed the man's arm. 'Ohh that's gotta hurt' she thought with a slight internal cringe. She noticed that he didn't seem all too concerned.

At that point in time, aforementioned blonde male was coming up with a new plan. He had noticed his target was in his sphere of ultimate defence and he had to try and find a way around it. Mikari, sensing his distraction, took that moment to get out of the way and launch herself onto the top of a nearby building. The man didn't even notice her go as now he was preoccupied with getting Gaara out of his shell. He infused some of his explosive clay with the sand, making some little ant minions. He sent off an explosion and the hole in the shell closed up, but not before some of his ants got in. He exploded them too rendering Gaara unconscious.

He swooped down and got Gaara before making his way back up to the building that he had blasted Telenei on to. She was still unconscious which was good for him, considering he was supposed to bring them back alive.

When he had the two unconscious targets he went off to find Mikari, though it didn't take much effort. She was standing on a rooftop not too far away, scowling with her arms folded across her chest. "You can come with me conscious or unconscious un. Either way I'm taking these two with me. Sasori-no-Danna won't be happy if we drag this out too much longer un." Mikari looked from him to her sister and Gaara. She was quickly considering her options. 'Well, if I go I make sure they're ok. I wouldn't stand a chance of fighting them off, and if I managed to get through him, I'd have to go through his friend as well…' She thought quickly. "Fine, I'll go," she said "if you won't hurt them."

**A/N: Yes, we all know that that's Deidara. *huggles Deidara***

**Anyway, uh I forgot what I was going to write, so I'll just give a warning about the updates probably being slower now as I've run out of all the written chapters and I don't really know how quick I can write it out. **

**Actually took a while to write this…I was too busy mourning L *sniff* such a cutie *sniff* *goes into a rant about Death Note and L***


	5. Meet the Akatsuki

**A/N: So we finally made it. All of that was supposed to happen a lot sooner…**

**Like at the end of chapter two or something. But it goes to show what happens when writing takes over. **

**Yes, yes, I realise Sasori is supposed to die before Tobi comes into the Akatsuki, but like I said, we've had to warp the story line considerably.**

**That and Tobi is just so damn hyperactive! *huggles Tobi and feeds him a cookie* **

***edit note* I didn't think I'd get this out…the internet dropped out on me! But it's back now! YAY!**

Telenei sat up with a groan, immediately realising that this was not where she had passed out. For starters, she was lying on a bed, and secondly it was way too dark. Her memories of the fight with Blondie resurfaced and she put two and two together, propping herself up on her now uninjured arm.

A door opened and someone walked in. It was too dark for Telenei to make out who it was but soon a voice drifted out of the darkness. "Hn. You're awake, finally. Now you can deal with that brat."

"Itachi?" She questioned, vaguely remembering the voice and the way he spoke sounded too much like Sasuke to be anyone else. He just let out a non-committal grunt before disappearing. 'Hn, he's pleasant as always' she thought sarcastically.

A short time later the door opened again and she found herself practically spear tackled backward. "Mikari," Telenei choked out. Although she didn't really show it she was relieved that her sister was fine, and seeing as how the place they were in hadn't blasted apart yet she'd been conscious the whole time. "So, where exactly are we anyway?"

"Uh, some lair or something…" Mikari replied vaguely. "We were waiting for you to come around before they dragged us out and made some announcement thing. I kept pesting Itachi to come and see if you were awake and he finally did…"

"He didn't seem too happy about it." Telenei stated. "What exactly did you do to the poor boy?"

Mikari laughed. "I kept on asking him over and over and over again until he finally caved." Telenei shook her head but she was smirking. "Well come on." Mikari dragged her up almost making her land face first into the floor, which, she realised, would have hurt tremendously given it's made of stone. "We have to go see the dude now…"

"Wait, what dude?"

"I dunno, some leader or something." Mikari said, dragging her by her wrist out of the room and into the long passageway.

The passageway was lined with rooms and it opened up into a large chamber at the end. 'It's probably a maze of caves' Telenei thought as she looked around.

They reached the large chamber quickly because Mikari was forcing Telenei to run. She took a right and they ended up in another long passageway. "Are…we…there…yet?" Telenei asked breathlessly.

"Nearly." Mikari replied. A short time afterward they were in another chamber, two people were waiting hidden in the shadows, but both Telenei and Mikari knew that they were there. "Welcome." One of the voices said. Somewhere in their consciousness the twins registered that it was a male. "Look, I'm going to be forward about this." Telenei said, not too happy about being raced through the corridors. "Why the hell were we kidnapped and brought here?" She crossed her arms over her chest. Mikari shot her a sideways glance. _"Careful Telenei. These people are powerful. And evil."_

"_Hn. Clearly…but they'd better have a good reason for this." _It was silent for a moment before the other person, a woman, took over. "We realise your potential as excellent ninja and we would like you to join us." Telenei looked over to Mikari, and Mikari looked back. "And if we don't?"

"You know of our existence so we'd be forced to kill you." The male responded again.

"_Well, that hardly seems fair." _Telenei said

"_Mm, but it looks like we don't have much of a choice."_ Mikari replied.

"Fine. We'll do it." Telenei said, an edge of annoyance creeping into her voice. She got the feeling that the man was smirking.

They waited around in the main chamber as they were instructed to do. Mikari lightly tapped Telenei's arm when she heard footsteps approaching them. Telenei turned. She was studying the wall for some unknown reason. The footsteps stopped and they saw a now one armed Blondie. Telenei glared. She would have loved to have kicked his ass for the whole Sand Village incident but decided against it. He didn't seem all too fussed about the way she was glaring. "I'm supposed to show you around and introduce you to everyone, un." He said, motioning for the girls to follow. "So, why not start with you then?" Mikari asked as he led them down one of the passageways. "I'm Deidara…and sorry about that…just following orders."

"Hn. Whatever." Telenei replied. She had pretty much forgiven him, after all, they were just told join or die, how many others had received that option?

"This is where most of the rooms are, un." He said as they walked.

"Oh cool. So people sleep here right?" Mikari asked. Deidara replied with a nod of his head. A very red headed man pokes his head out of a door. "Deidara." He said with a slight nod. Deidara stopped causing Mikari to walk into him. She rubbed her nose as Deidara introduced him. "This is Sasori-no-Danna, un" He explained. "We work together, un."

"_Whoa. Hot much?" _Mikari said silently to Telenei. Telenei smirked suppressing a laugh. She could tell Mikari was going to enjoy herself here. _"Yes, Mikari, he's drop dead gorgeous, now stop ogling, we're moving again." _Mikari looked around and saw her sister a few meters ahead of them. Telenei turned and beckoned her forward.

They didn't get too much further before something blurred in front of them and latched itself onto the girls. "What the…?" Telenei asked, trying to make sense of what was hugging both of their waists. "Hi, hi, hi. Protect Tobi please! Tobi didn't mean it! Tobi is a good boy!"

Mikari giggled. "I take it that your name is Tobi then." Tobi nodded.

"And that's Hidan, un." Deidara said, looking somewhat exasperated. They didn't have to wait long to see what he was talking about as a man came down the passageway, screaming profanities. "TOBI! GET BACK HERE YOU ASSHOLE!" He stopped as he saw Tobi cowering behind two girls and Deidara. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked, clearly annoyed. Telenei scowled as Mikari replied for them. "I'm Mikari, and this is my twin Telenei."

"I wish I could say pleased to meet you but really, I'm not." Telenei interjected, her arms folded tightly, glare still fixed in place.

"Feisty little bitch aren't you?" Hidan asked with a similar expression. "Now hand over that little fucktard so I can kill him." Telenei sighed and punched him in the face. "I don't think so."

"Move it bitch or I'll make you."

"You motherf…" The rest of Mikari's statement was cut off as Telenei's hand clamped over her mouth, so she finished it with a punch in the face instead.

"Now move it asshole. We weren't done with our tour yet." Telenei grumbled, pushing past a stunned Hidan, dragging Tobi, Mikari and Deidara along with her. "Now, let's get going." She said more calmly. "Don't worry Tobi. We won't let that mean idiot hurt you, K?" Tobi nodded and unlatched himself from around them.

"I don't know how you can deal with him, un." Deidara said, placing a hand to his forehead. "Hey, we lived in the same village as Naruto; if we can handle him…we can handle anything." Mikari said with a slight laugh.

"Zetsu stays here, un." Deidara continued. "He's a cannibal, so don't go in there if you want to come out alive, un."

"YO! Itachi!" Mikari called waving. Deidara looked at them oddly. "We used to live in the same village, remember?" Mikari added for Deidara's benefit. Itachi groaned and walked back into what was presumably his room.

"Oh and this is Kisame's room, un." At that moment Kisame walked through the door, wondering what the hell all that noise was. "Whoa, they should call you fish sticks!" Telenei said, looking at the blue, very shark like man. He glared back.

"Uh, Kakuzu stays here, un." Deidara said, pointing out another room. The pair heard a laugh, some clinking and something that sounded like: "Oh precious money, bringer of life…money, money, money!" Telenei looked at Mikari and they burst out laughing. There was a sudden silence from inside the room and they kept walking, snickering the whole way. "Pein-sama and Konan-sama stay in another part of the hideout, un." Deidara explained. "You'd probably like Konan, seeing as how she's the only other girl here, un."

"So then, where do we get to sleep?" Mikari yawned, adding emphasis to her words. Deidara led them to a room that they would be sharing. "You can actually sleep with that demon, un?" He asked, seeming genuinely confused.

"One of us can." Telenei shot a glance in the direction of Mikari who was already sitting on a bed. "Hey!" She said suddenly. "Do we get one of those cloakie things?"

"Uhm, I imagine so, un" He replied, leaving the girls to their room, and escaping gratefully to his own.

"I think you scared Blondie off Mikari." Telenei said with a laugh. She shrugged her shoulders and picked up a cloak that had been folded on the end of her bed, she hadn't realised she was sitting on it. Telenei picked one up from her bed too and held it up. "Wow, right size and everything. Gotta hand it to them, they're organised at least." Mikari stood up, holding hers against herself too, swishing it around. "Spiffy, ay?" She asked, twirling around in a circle.

"Very." Telenei agreed.

**A/N: Ok so sorry that that was boring, but we had to get the introductions out of the way. The next chapters should be better…and we should get in some more interaction…turning the girls loose on the Akatsuki…boy do I feel sorry for them…except for Tobi. He'll be able to handle them well I think. **


	6. Saving Gaara

**A/N: Sorry for the lack of update but I'm not some kind of machine. I melt in the sun. That and I'm running out of ideas. I can only plan this so far without forgetting. Ugh the heat makes me cranky… Just call me a real life Zexion. **

**Anywho…ON WITH THE FIC!**

**Oh and I own all the Naruto characters…well…I do on Facebook anyway… ahaha**

**Unfortunately not in real life u.u**

Mikari woke suddenly. Telenei, who had been leaning up against the wall, trying to entertain herself, looked over at her sister. "I've just thought of something." Mikari said. "Or rather, just dreamed something."

"And what would that be?" Telenei asked with a touch of tired impatience.

"Well, I don't know if you know because you were out of it, but when we were fighting…er…Deidara…yeah that's his name…when we were fighting Deidara in the Sand Village…Oh that was a good fight…"

"Get to the point Mikari."

"Fine, we weren't the only ones taken hostage. Gaara was too." Mikari finally said. Telenei turned her head more toward her sister's direction. "Are you sure? I haven't seen Gaara anywhere."

"Exactly my point…where could he be…and what are they doing with him?"

Telenei had to think about this. Sure she had been out, but Mikari hadn't so of course she would know. If she was sure Gaara was here somewhere then they'd just have to find him, and find out what happened.

"Why do they want us, anyway?" Mikari asked thoughtfully.

"I don't quite know…except maybe for our demon." Telenei replied, giving it a bit more thought now. In the beginning she had wondered if it had something to do with them being in the way of kidnapping Gaara but now it was a different matter.

"Would you shut the fuck up?" A voice came from somewhere near their doorway. It was obvious as to who it was. After two days of listening to him swear non-stop it was unmistakeably Hidan. "What are you doing outside our room anyway Jashin-boy?" Mikari called out.

"Fuck up."

"No you fuck up…bitch." Telenei said with growing impatience.

"Did you just call me a fucking bitch you whore?"

"Yes she did. You are a bitch. Now fuck off before we come out there and go all demon on your ass!" Mikari replied angrily. "I'm trying to catch some fucking sleep." She shot a glance over at Telenei who was mumbling something along the lines of "oh he did not just call me a whore" while flipping a kunai through her fingers with a twitching eye.

-x-x-x-

The morning rolled around and Telenei was not much happier. She was still plotting her revenge on Jashin's bitch. Mikari was happily putting on her new black and read cloak; Telenei had been sitting in hers the night before. "Ok, today we're going to find out where Gaara is!" Mikari declared, pumping a fist into the air. Telenei wanted to roll her eyes at her sister's enthusiasm, but settled for a short laugh instead. "Alright, we explore the caves until we find Gaara, kapeesh?" She said, trying on a mafia accent.

"I like the way you think." Mikari said smiling deviously. With that, the twins set out to find their friend.

-x-x-x-

Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi-sensei and Chiyo baa-sama were making their way to the supposed location of the Akatsuki hideout, moving swiftly in order to rescue Gaara. "Hey, Sakura-chan?" Naruto said as they hopped from tree to tree.

"What is it Naruto?" She asked.

"Do you think Telenei and Mikari will be there too? They disappeared with Gaara after all."

Sakura shrugged. "I dunno Naruto. Maybe." At that point in time, Inner Sakura was saying something along the lines of "I never trusted those creeps in the first place. They probably kidnapped Gaara themselves."

A short while later, they were caught up in a battle with Itachi, just as Gai's team was caught up in a battle with Kisame.

-x-x-x-

It didn't take the twins too long to find Gaara. He was suspended above the ground in a blue substance and he didn't look very comfortable. Shortly after they arrived the blue substance disappeared and Gaara had fallen to the ground.

As soon as the coast was clear the pair walked up to him. "I don't like the look of this." Mikari stated plainly.

"No, nor do I." Telenei said, once more folding her arms across her chest. Mikari reached out and put a hand on his wrist, checking his pulse. "He's dead." She said simply. "But then again so am I technically. I can never feel wrist pulses." She then in turn put a hand to Gaara's neck. "Uh, no, Telenei…he really is dead." Telenei looked at her sister sadly. Both Mikari and Telenei had tears in their eyes, though Telenei was threatening them with death if they even so much as thought about falling down her face. "We have to get him out of here." She said sombrely. Despite the fact that he was dead she wasn't going to have his body rotting away somewhere. He needed a proper burial in the Sand village.

Mikari put one of his arms around her shoulders and Telenei did the same, wiping a tear from her mismatched purple and green eyes. There was an upside to never getting any sleep she had often thought dryly. At least you don't need to put on eyeliner.

The girls quickly made their way out of the lair, getting lost a few times, but eventually making it out. They were completely unaware of the fighting going on around them. They put his body in a sitting position some distance away from the headquarters as they took a rest. "So, which direction do we go?" Telenei asked, seeing as how Mikari was the conscious one at the time that they were brought here. "Hmm, we go in a general…that way… direction." She said, pointing a path toward the Sand Village. Telenei nodded once. She would have preferred resting a bit more but if they wanted to make it back to the Sand without people knowing they had gone missing they had to leave pretty much straight away. "Alright Mikari," She said softly "let's take him home."

-x-x-x-

Both Naruto's team and Gai's team had now realised that they weren't in fact fighting the real Kisame and Itachi. "Damn." Naruto said before quickly carrying on again. He stopped suddenly. He thought he had just heard someone moving in their direction. Without a word Naruto began pursuing them, the rest of his team forced to follow. He ended up in a small clearing where he had guessed that he'd intercept whoever it was, and he was right. Two people in black and red cloaks walked out. "Gaara!" Naruto cried, not actually paying any attention to the people holding him. "What did you evil bastards do to him?"

"We didn't do anything Naruto." Telenei said.

"We didn't even know about it." Mikari interjected. Naruto looked up at the sound of the familiar voices, paying closer attention now to who they belonged to.

"Huh? Telenei, Mikari? What're you doin' dressed like that?" Naruto asked, blinking in confusion. "Aw, c'mon Naruto, can't you tell? It's so what's in fashion right now!" Mikari joked. "How's Hinata by the way." She continued, a devious smirk set in place. Naruto blushed and Mikari gave him the thumbs up. Everything seemed as though they had never left, but the weight of Gaara's body on their shoulders reminded them otherwise. Mikari shot a sideways glance at Telenei who sighed. "Fine I'll be the bad guy." She said with a quick yet half-hearted roll of her eyes. "Naruto. They killed Gaara. You need to get him home, ok?" She gave a weak sad smile. Naruto looked at them, completely flabbergasted by that bit of information. "You're kidding right, Telenei?" She shook her head gently. "Get him home." She repeated softly.

The elderly woman stepped forward. "I can bring him back." She said. "But I would die in the process." She was making herself quite clear that she had every intention of doing that, whether everyone else wanted that or not. "My grandson did this, so I will undo it."

"Your grandson?" Mikari questioned.

Chiyo nodded her head "Sasori has lost his way."

"Waitwaitwait… Sasori is your grandson…that hot piece of puppet?" Mikari seemed genuinely stunned. Chiyo nodded and Telenei shook her head, placing her free hand to her forehead. What a time to act like that.

Telenei and Mikari laid Gaara on the ground, his dead weight beginning to strain their shoulders. They watched on in saddened fascination as Chiyo brought the Kazekage back to life. "Make sure you give the old woman a good funeral." Telenei said, preparing to bid farewell to her friends. Soon enough they were going to be dragged back to the Akatsuki and most likely punished. "Come back with us." Naruto said. "We're here for you too."

"Naruto… we can't." Telenei said unhappily. She wanted nothing more than to go home. "Huh? Why not?"

"They own us now Naruto." Mikari chimed in. "The only way we get free is if we take the Akatsuki down from the…inside…out…" She trailed off as the idea formulated. "Of course we'd leave Itachi for our good buddy Sasuke…" And now she was refining the plan further. "Uh, Naruto, you need to get out of here, and make sure you keep safe." Telenei said. She looked to Mikari. "We have to be heading back…'cause I'm pretty sure that in a few minutes we're getting dragged back." Mikari frowned slightly.

"Hey don't worry about us Naruto. We can take care of ourselves." Mikari said with a wave as she and her sister made their way back to the hideout.

**A/N: Ok so the chapter was slightly sucktacular. Now I have to give credit to the writers of pirates of the Caribbean for their contribution to the story. **

**Thankyou to everyone who actually sticks with this crazy story!**


	7. Twin Dragon Jutsu

**A/N: Sorry for the serious lack of updates. I had a serious lack of inspiration. It was insane. I still don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to type and see what I come up with. Keep an eye out for new fics popping up too. I've been working on some others in the mean time during the periods of utter nothingness on the inspiration front. **

**And also, soon, very soon, I'm going away for a week and won't have access to the net, so again, I leave you without updates. Sorry. **

Telenei and Mikari walked in, rubbing their hands. Each of them had bright red bite marks. "Well, that was fun." Mikari said with a mischievous grin. Telenei smirked. "He shouldn't have bitten us." She responded. An image flashed through her mind, shared by Mikari, who immediately burst out laughing. The image consisted of Zetsu wearing two daisy chains with flowers pinned to his large leaf looking attachments, two large red bumps on his head.

Telenei shrugged. Today had been one of both revenge and immense fun. Mikari had decided that she would get revenge on all of the people who forced her imprisonment here. Telenei was only too happy to help her. They had struck Kakuzu first, burning a wallet full of money right in front of his eyes. He was too stunned to do anything, staring at them with his mouth agape. They snickered, running out of his room on to the next plan. They had grabbed one of Sasori's puppets and held it hostage, letting Deidara take the fall. From there it was Hidan, whom they had punched in the face several times and stolen his scythe, accidentally blowing up his altar for Jashin in the process. They stole Itachi's hat and painted it bright pink, not doing anything to Konan, Pein or Tobi. The twins liked Konan and Tobi, and no-one dared to piss off Pein.

-x-x-x-

Telenei and Mikari were now outside. They always snuck out to get fresh air, still not being used to cave life yet. They set off into a quick sparring match before heading back inside. The surrounding landscape was now damaged by the fighting, not really sticking out, considering the fight between the Akatsuki and the ninja of Konoha just recently.

They were back inside the coolness of the cave. It had been rather hot outside so the darkness was quite welcoming. They both jumped as someone called out to them. The resulting surprise ended up in an explosion. Part of the cave wall had been exploded away, the rubble still showering down on the party. "I think you'd better come with me." Konan said.

A short walk later they had arrived in front of Pein. Konan was explaining what had happened and was now surveying the girls with interest. Pein knew that the girls were possessed by a split demon, and now it would seem that the power of the demon was somewhat unsteady, releasing itself at random intervals, such as when they were emotional, or someone/something caught them by surprise.

"We can't control when it happens." Telenei explained, trying to keep the boredom out of her voice. "It just…happens."

"With proper training, the power should be able to be kept under control." He mused. "What can you do as far as fighting is concerned?" He asked.

He led the girls outside for a demonstration of their power. It most certainly wouldn't do to have the hideout blasted apart. Konan stood by, excitement in her eyes. So far no-one had seen what the girls could do, other than cause what they believed to be necessary mayhem. "Mikari, do you want to go first?" Telenei asked. Mikari nodded. She was clearly very excited too. She placed herself in front of a tree. She formed the appropriate hand-signs and watched as her ice daggers cut the tree. "TIMBER!" She called as the tree fell to the ground. By now most of the Akatsuki was watching the pair. "I have a manipulation over the water element." Mikari explained. "It's strongest when I'm around water but I can control it from a distance too because of my water type chakra." She made another hand-sign and swished her hand around her in a circle, a large wave of water following her hand, soaking a few people. Pein nodded his approval. "Ok Telenei, you can take over now." Mikari prompted. Telenei stepped forward, her hands in front of her, her eyes closed. It could almost be mistaken for prayer. She quickly formed her hand-signs and sent out a spiral of fire, much like Mikari's "Giant Wave jutsu', setting the nearby trees on fire. Her eyes snapped open as she formed new hand-signs, sending small fireballs off in every direction. "I have a fire type chakra." She explained as she inspected the damage she had caused to the surrounding area. She turned and winced apologetically as she saw she'd singed Deidara's coat. "There is one more thing we can do…" Mikari said, a devious smile fixed in place. Mikari beckoned Telenei over, she knew exactly what her sister was getting at. The twins now stood side by side. "I'd advise anyone who values their life to please step back a bit." Telenei cautioned. "We haven't used this Jutsu for a while and it could seriously go out of control with our unpredictable power." The Akatsuki members backed off as Telenei handed Mikari her right hand, and Mikari handed Telenei her left. The pair clasped hands in a combined hand-sign and closed their eyes. They could feel their hair whipping around their faces. "Twin Element Dragon Jutsu." They recited in unison. Their chakra dragons swirled around each other, literally exploding the trees out of the ground. They unclasped their hands and looked around. "Oops." Mikari said, surveying the damage. Telenei was looking at the reactions of their fellow Akatsuki members. Some of them looked awed, others a touch frightened (even though they would never admit it), Deidara looked like he was going to wet himself with pure excitement. Everyone knew how much he loved explosions. "There's also one more thing we can do, aside from the usual jutsu, we can summon an actually two headed dragon." Mikari supplied, breaking the silence around them. "His name is Taiichiro." Telenei said with a sort of fondness.

"Want to see him?" Mikari asked.

"Uh, we'll be right." Konan answered quickly. After all, she could disperse her body into paper…the last thing she wanted was a dragon.

Pein seemed quite impressed. "We can also release the demon…though that wouldn't go down to well, trust me." Telenei said. She shuddered remembering the last time that had happened. Luckily they woke up quickly and not much damage was done. "We'll start your training tomorrow morning." Pein said and the rogue ninja all went back into the cave that was their hideout.

**A/N: Ok so I had no idea where that was going and I didn't even end up squeezing everything into it. So at least now I have plans for the next chapter! And you'll get the update quicker cause I have ideas…really then everyone wins ^^**

**Until next time…**


	8. Training

**A/N: Sorry this took so long to come out. I've been back for a little while, but the day after we got back, my rabbit died, and the day after that one of our fish died. I've been in mourning for our lost pets. **

**So here's the update now. Thankyou to all the people who've stuck with it so far and favourited it and reviewed it and the like… it means a bunch. **

Pein had not been joking when he had told the twins someone would be coming to train them at dawn. Telenei wouldn't have been surprised if leader-sama had ordered someone to stay outside and wait for the sun to come up by even the smallest amount before he or she was to fetch the girls.

They had taken turns sleeping that night so that they could be at least marginally rested for what lay ahead of them. Telenei just so happened to be awake when that said someone came.

A blonde head poked through the curtains that covered the doorway for privacy. Telenei immediately got up and crossed to Mikari, waking her up with as much force as was always necessary.

Even though they weren't about to admit it, the twins were glad that Deidara would be training them. The other members, except perhaps Konan or Sasori-no-Dana, would be hell bent on torturing the girls rather than training them.

The groggy Mikari followed him out first, closely followed by Telenei. Mikari snickered slightly as they passed Hidan's room. The words 'Jashin's bitch' had been painted across the curtain in big pink letters. Telenei wasn't surprised to see it. Since they had given him the nickname it had stuck, spreading throughout the organisation like wildfire.

They reached the slightly larger clearing that they had been in the other day. Mikari pulled her cloak tighter around her shoulders. It was cooler now as the sun had not risen properly. The two girls stood opposite Deidara and waited to be told what exactly it was that they would be doing during this training session. "Today we're just going to work on combat and physical strength, un." Deidara told them. Deidara had no idea why he was picked for this one. Surely someone like Fish Sticks, as the girls had affectionately called Kisame, would have been better.

"Ok then." Mikari said, "Let's do this."

-x-x-x-

"Granny Tsunade!" Naruto huffed, having only just returned to Konoha, bursting into the fifth Hokage's office. "Naruto." She said with a nod, expecting a full report of the mission as promised. "Well, we went to the hideout but then Itachi and Kisame stopped us, only it wasn't really them it was just some clones!" Tsunade simply looked at him, her fingers interlaced in front of her face, her expression bored. "Then," Naruto continued "We got past them and we heard some noise so we went to go check it out and guess what?"

"What Naruto?"

"Telenei and Mikari were there! They brought us Gaara's body and then the old woman brought him back to life. We told the twins to come back with us but they said that they can't…but I think they're going to try and take down the Akatsuki from inside." Naruto finished.

"Wait, why couldn't they come back?"

"They were forced by the Akatsuki to join them, haven't you been listening Granny Tsunade?"

"Hmm." She hummed. "Naruto, you're dismissed." Tsunade thought this over. Having the twins on the inside would make things easier for them, though she would prefer not to have one as easily swayed as Mikari in the presence of so many potentially gorgeous men. She took a drink of sake before interlacing her fingers again. She would just have to wait and see how this turned out.

-x-x-x-

Mikari charged at him again, panting slightly. They had been in a mock battle all morning, and she was starting to get a little worn out from all the work. Normally they would be able to use jutsus in combat to get this over with quicker, but this time all they were allowed was weapons, and the intent to kill the other person, and seeing as how the other person had captured the twins in the first place, there was some intent to kill present. That intent had faded over their days in the caves, he really wasn't such a bad guy, just following orders, but one doesn't forget being kidnapped so easily.

The pair charged as a team, each of them quickly relaying information through their mental link. They were trying the teamwork approach again. _"ok, ok, this time you flank him…spear tackle him if you have to and I'll take him from behind…oh that's suggestive."_

Deidara managed to just hold the girls off. Mikari kept attacking him, while Telenei had seemingly disappeared. She ducked into the trees, sitting atop one of the higher branches. She smirked when she saw an opening. Telenei sent chakra to her feet to keep her on the branch while she positioned herself, before leaping head first off said branch and straight onto Deidara, landing them in a very compromising position. Telenei was sitting atop Deidara, her face just inches from his. "Looks like I win." She whispered victoriously as Mikari helped her up.

They walked back into the cave, Telenei lagging behind a little so as to hide the light blush staining her cheeks. She had enjoyed that last part of their training more than she should have.

The twins headed straight for their room so that they could take it in turns to have a little nap after their hard work. Telenei let Mikari sleep first, though she would come to regret that decision as her thoughts led her to places she just DID NOT want to go to.

**Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry. I am so sorry this took so long to get out…but I am SO lazy and yeh know…pet death…that and it has just been so hot here recently and I've been working on so many different stories as well that I intend to post soon, I just didn't want to out any others up before this one, especially since I owed you an explanation. **

**Reviews are love. **


	9. Art is a Blast or is it?

**A/N: I think the story might be winding down soon. I don't really know where it stands as far as endings go, but I'm trying to come up with something good. I need to discuss it with my sister first. **

After a week of rigorous training, the twins were allowed some time off. Just a day, mind you. Telenei was walking down the halls, swinging Deidara's puppet arm back and forth as she walked. She wondered when he would notice that it was missing. She'd kidnapped it as a prank. When you're stuck in a cave all the time, life can be rather boring.

But not today…

No, today as Telenei was pacing the halls, while Mikari enjoyed her usual sleep in, Telenei's ears were graced with the sweet sounds of a minor explosion, then some cursing, then some yelling, followed by a good dose of arguing.

Telenei smiled slyly. She had a feeling that Sasori and Deidara would be at it again and things would escalate to the point where they'd be about ready to kill each other. She waited by the entrance to the cave they were in, waiting as they argued. When she heard something along the lines of "Oh yeah, I'll show you…" followed by some incoherent rambling, she decided it was time to step in.

She caught Deidara's arm as it was about to swing to Sasori. "Now, now boys, what's all this fighting about?" She asked, noticing char marks. Sasori turned his glare in her direction. "Deidara keeps exploding everything, claiming that art is a blast."

"Tell him Telenei! Art is a blast un!" Deidara pleaded with a kind of desperation, turning to look at Telenei. Telenei studied the pair with curiosity. "Art is meant to be ever lasting." Sasori interjected. Telenei knew exactly where she stood on this. Releasing Deidara's hand so it flopped back to his side, she placed a hand on his shoulder. "Sorry Sasori-san. I agree with Dei-kun." Sasori didn't look all to surprised to hear this. "Art is meant to last." He said crossing his arms a little tighter over his wooden chest. "Is not."

"Is so"

"Is not"

"Is so"

"What's going on here?"

A fourth voice had joined the fray. It seems sleeping beauty had finally woken from her slumber. "Mikari, we are trying to determine whether or not art should be everlasting." Sasori explained. Mikari put a hand on her chin with an exaggerated "Oh," sound. "It doesn't look like you're getting very far." She noted.

"That's because we're not." Telenei said, knowing that if her sister joined in their little 'conversation' things wouldn't progress any further either. "Well, I'm siding with Sasori." Mikari said with a shrug, standing next to him. "Now where were we again?"

"Is not." Telenei and Deidara supplied in unison.

"Is so"

"Is not"

"Is so"

"Is Not"

"Enough!" Another voice. "Stop your squabbling already and take it somewhere else. You're giving me a headache."

"Yes sir Pein-sama!"

With that they retreated from the cave. "This isn't over." Mikari warned, turning left down a corridor with Sasori in tow. _"Far from it."_ Telenei said telepathically as Mikari was too far away to hear her voice.

"Well, when you think about it, we won this round." Telenei said. She and Deidara were sitting on some rocks in a nearby clearing. "Hm?" he said lifting his head to look at the girl opposite him. She was wearing a smile. A proper, real smile; Not a smirk, not a scowl, a smile. "How did we win, un?"

"Technically we won cause we had the last words." Telenei replied triumphantly. "Pein-sama interrupted us just after we said 'Is not' so technically we win."

Deidara was working out her logic in his head, and when he made sense of what she was trying to say he nodded. "You're right, un. We did say 'is not' before the argument ended, so we win and art _is_ a blast, un."

"I think it's time we celebrated…with some explosions. Only little ones though…don't wanna draw any attention to the hideout."

Telenei realised as they were walking again to go and find a nice place to explode stuff, that she still had Deidara's puppet arm. It was now bent over her shoulder. "Uhm, Dei-kun, you might want this back." She said with a laugh, handing it to him. "Oh, so that's where that went, hm." He said passively, taking the arm from Telenei.

Meanwhile, back inside the caves…

Mikari was spending some quality time with the puppet she had grown to befriend. Sasori was showing her some of the puppets he had created, and Mikari was looking at them with awe. "No don't touch that part!" Sasori said, quickly redirecting Mikari's hand. "It's poison."

"Oh, I see."

Sasori was unaware of why he should even care, but he put it down to her being part of the Akatsuki now, and they didn't kill off their members intentionally…unless there was a really good reason.

"Hey I like this one." Mikari said, looking at a puppet, but keeping her hands back. She had no intention of getting poisoned any time soon.

"I wanna ask something." Mikari said suddenly.

"What's that?" Sasori said, turning slightly to look at her.

"If we're collecting demons and extracting them from their hosts, why aren't Telenei and I in that big sucky-uppy machine?"

"Well, I guess Pein-sama thinks you're worth more alive. Plus, your demon is split isn't it? It would be a lot harder to extract a split demon than a whole one." Sasori was just rattling off theories that he had thought up. He too often wondered why the girls had been allowed to live.

-x-x-x-

"Hey, Telenei-chan, what's the deal with the sleeping thing, hn?" Deidara asked as they counted down to the third explosion. "I know some people have demons and that they can't sleep, but how does that work with a split demon?"

"Only one of us can sleep if we're in close proximity to each other. If we're miles apart it doesn't matter. We can both sleep. As long as we're far enough away that the demon can't become a whole by us sleeping, we should be right."

"And judging by the way you have darker circles, you sleep less than Mikari does, un?"

"Yep. But hey, I know she loves her sleep, and I get by just fine without it, so what else is a bigger sister to do. Even though I'm only older by exactly one half of a second… I promised my mother I'd look after her, so that's exactly what I plan to do. Even if it means running myself into the ground."

BOOM. With that explosion they cheered and the mushy moment was gone. They checked out the small blast crater left behind before placing another explosive not too far away and waiting, eagerly, for it to be rent into millions of pieces.

**Ok, ok, that seemed like a good enough place to end it. Sorry this one was so long in the making. Curses for filler chapters, but it gets going again soon I promise. It should actually be over in (give or take) 5 chapters. So we'll see how we go with that. **

**Happy reading**

**Aya-chan. (Shadow)**


	10. Misgivings

**A/N: So my internet is down again and I'm taking this as a sign to get writing so you can all read the next chapter of this fic. I know that it will be ending soon, but I'm trying to work out what the ending will be. I don't want to have this fic drag on too much longer if it's going to be boring. Things begin to progress from this chapter onward. ^^**

**A/N (pt 2): I'm so sorry this took so long…really I am…I got sick, Uni started….excuses, excuses, true excuses, but excuses nonetheless…if you get sick of waiting for a chapter to come out just PM me and I'll get on it…*sigh* I'm so awful…**

"_Now that they're training us, it'll be easier to take them down from the inside out." _Mikari sent telepathically. Just because two of the Akatsuki members were out scouting the location of the next demon, doesn't mean that there weren't other members who would be eavesdropping if they were to speak their plans out loud. _"Hm, you're right." _Telenei said absentmindedly as she turned her head slightly to look at her sister. _"Then we can go back to Konoha, back to all our friends and everyone." _Mikari ranted. _"But who would we take out first?"_

Telenei shrugged. She wasn't really feeling up to this conversation. She was worn out from weeks of relentless training.

A short while afterward, Telenei went out for a walk. She hated constantly being caged up in the caves. She was out, sitting on a rock as she let her thoughts wander, the cool breeze gently brushing her hair against her face. With a sigh, she placed her chin in her cupped hands. 'I don't know anymore.' She thought listlessly. 'I don't think I can do this.' It was true that now she was having second thoughts about their decision to try and take them down. If they were going to go through with it, she knew that it would have to be soon, preferably before Deidara and Sasori got back. Then there would be fewer opponents and they'd stand a better chance.

Telenei spared a thought for Tobi. He was so energetic and childlike that Telenei couldn't even imagine hurting him, much less killing him. She perked up at the idea of taking Hidan down. The pair had never managed to get along. She knew that she had made some friends here, and didn't relish the thought of betraying them,. but what about Mikari? Surely she must feel the same way? How could she want to betray her friends so easily just for a bit of freedom?

Mikari was in fact, at this very moment, thinking about exactly that. 'But…friends…but…home…but…hot piece of puppet…but…argh this isn't fair.' Mikari had grown a fondness for the puppet master after the little argument on art all those weeks ago. She had brought some more fun back into his life. He would occasionally help her pull a prank on Deidara, remembering how Telenei would quite often help Deidara get them back. Once, the twins had to restrain the two of them because of a blown up puppet and a marble statue…or something of the sort. Mikari laughed at the memory. She knew she didn't want to betray her friends, but she dearly missed home.

-x-x-x-

"Do you think they'll come back?" Hinata asked Naruto as she sat with him on one of the rooftops, gazing over the leaf village. "I hope so…" Naruto said. He was beginning to miss his troublemaking friends. He knew that even Sasuke missed Telenei at the very least…even though he would never have admitted it…but he was moodier than usual. Naruto and friends thought that the Leaf Village had lost some of its life without them around to be blowing things up…or setting people up…

-x-x-x-

Telenei sneezed suddenly. Someone must have been talking about her. She heaved a sigh and pulled herself up off the rock she was sitting on. She began to walk slowly back to the cave. Telenei froze as she heard a rustling noise. It could have been a rabbit…or it could have been a shinobi from one of the hidden villages trying to find the location of the elusive Akatsuki.

She edged closer to the direction she'd heard the noise come from. _"We may have trouble." _She sent a warning to her sister, sending a mental image of her location as well. Whoever they may be, they weren't troubling to keep the noise down. Telenei knew they were human because as they noisily shuffled forward she could hear ragged breathing. She was quite confused. If they were ninja coming to try and find them, why were they being so noisy?

Mikari dropped down by her side holding a kunai defensively in front of herself, while Telenei reached for some Shuriken to throw at the intruder…or intruders…it sounded like more than one person. _"Okay, on three then?" _Mikari asked, using their telepathy to their advantage. _"Ok…"_

"_3" _Mikari counted, repositioning herself to an attack position

"_2" _Telenei raised the shuriken and prepared to throw it.

"_one…" _The pair lowered their defences as the people they were watching stumbled out through the trees. "Sasori! Deidara!" Mikari exclaimed. Sasori was supporting most of Deidara's weight as the blonde was heavily injured. Sasori wasn't much better, his heart canister had a slight crack in it, and his puppet body suffered extensive damage.

The twins raced up to the injured pair, Sasori looked rather relieved to see them, Deidara was too out of it to even notice where he was. Mikari took Deidara from leaning on Sasori and directed him to her sister. Telenei took Deidara's weight from Mikari, whilst Mikari took Sasori's weight. 'Good thing I came out here to think after all.' Telenei thought sardonically as she followed behind Mikari on their way back to the cave.

Telenei and Mikari laid the injured Akatsuki members on to their beds. If the Akatsuki caves had some sort of infirmary the twins didn't have too much time to ask anyone, and then try to find it. "Still remember your medical stuff?" Mikari asked. Telenei nodded. She had trained as a medical ninja as well as her usual training in the beginning, seeing as how she wasn't sure what she should be, she was glad she took it now. "And you?" Telenei asked in return. Mikari nodded. Telenei had advised her to take the training for that as well.

Telenei and Mikari tied their hair back and set to healing their friends. Some time later, Telenei wiped her forehead, leaving a streak of blood behind. Healing them was taking longer than it should have and she was getting both worried and tired. She picked up a cloth and wiped the sweat from her forehead, taking some of the blood with it. "Mikari, how are you going?" She asked, shooting a quick glance in her sister's direction. "This is hard." She replied, her voice strained.

Telenei held in a yawn…she had to focus as hard as she could. "Please, please…" She begged quietly. "You have to pull together…you have to make it." She let her eyes drop slightly. Both she and Mikari had been working for hours, and she knew her patient was slipping from her. "You can't die." She said sternly. Ten minutes later Mikari let out a slight laugh of relief. "Sasori will be ok…he just needs to rest…" She rested a hand on Telenei's shoulder. "Go get some rest…you did great Mikari." Telenei said. Her sister had worked well and deserved it. "Do you need help?" Mikari asked. "You're pretty worn out too."

"I'll be fine. Go rest." Telenei went back to focusing on healing. Mikari lifted her hand from Telenei's shoulder and left her sister to her work with a slightly worried expression.

Telenei lowered her hands, trying to stand up. She had been kneeling on the ground for so long that her legs had gone numb. She placed a bloodied hand over her eyes and cried silently, the other hand she placed on one of Deidara's cold ones. She had tried her best, and that was all she could do.

Perhaps her best just wasn't good enough.

**Again. I am so sorry this is late…so if I have any readers after this…thankyou for sticking with my horrible updates. Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou. **

**I'll try to update faster. Promise. **


	11. Aftermath

**A/N: I know, I know… but please, put down your weapons of mass destruction for a minute to read the chapter…don't kill me for last chapter…please?**

Telenei wiped her eyes and stood up, walking from her room. She stood at the door for a brief second before walking from the caves at a rapid pace. She went as far away as she dared, finding a mountain stream and washing her hands and face.

She stared at her reflection in the steadily moving stream. "What are you looking at?" She asked her reflection harshly. She scooped her hand through the water, scattering her reflection. Telenei brushed angrily at the tears that were coursing down her cheeks. "Just stop!" She shouted, though it wasn't like her tears could hear her. She flopped back down onto the grass and listened to the birds, letting a sigh escape her lips.

Telenei thought she should feel worse than she did. She felt rather at peace for someone who had just undergone the physical and emotional stress that she'd just experienced.

Telenei lay there for the rest of the afternoon, drifting in and out of a light doze. When it grew dark, she heaved herself up with a sigh and made her way back to the cave, knowing Mikari must be wondering where she is. Telenei had shut off her mental link with her sister for a while, just wanting to be left alone with her thoughts.

She entered the cave in a slight daze, barely registering where she was until she realised that she was now warm not cold. She shook hr head lightly in an attempt to clear the hazy cloud of loss from her head. Mikari was waiting for her in the hallway. "Are you alright?" She asked seriously. Telenei nodded once.

Breaking away from her sister, she went up to her room. She paused at the door, taking a deep breath before walking in. Deidara was exactly where she had left him, laying on her bed. She took her previous place, kneeling by his side.

Telenei went back outside for a minute to collect some water before returning inside. When she got back to her room she rummaged for a cloth and began to wipe the blood from Deidara's face and arms, using her fire chakra to heat the water slightly. She let a small smile grace her features as she placed the now red cloth back into the water. Telenei dried her hands on her cloak before gently running her fingers through Deidara's fringe. Her hand brushed his forehead and she noted that his skin was cold. Stupidly, she pulled the blanket up over his body and laid her head on the side of her bed. _"I'll let you sleep tonight." _Mikari sent. _"I want to keep an eye on Sasori, just to make sure he pulls through tonight." _

"_Sure, sure."_ Telenei sent back tiredly, already feeling her eyelids beginning to droop.

Telenei had a restless sleep that night, waking up between nightmares. Sometimes she would wake up with tears streaming down her face, other times she would wake up, see Deidara's body and begin to cry, either that or she would force herself to sleep again to prevent the tears.

At around 2AM she fell into a deep and dreamless sleep, for which she would be grateful in the morning.

When the morning did come Telenei awoke to the unpleasant stiffness of sleeping while kneeling on a rock floor. She stretched and yawned, taking a look at her occupied bed. She closed her eyes tightly and walked out of their room, going to the stream to wake herself up.

When she returned to her room, she placed a hand lightly over Deidara's. 'I suppose I'll have to make the arrangements soon.' She thought blandly. After all, she couldn't have him in her bed forever, as much as she would have loved that. Things would get awfully smelly with a decomposing body…

Deidara's hand twitched underneath hers, making her jump a foot in the air. She stared intently as blue eyes fluttered open. "Telenei is that you, hm?" Telenei blinked twice. It hadn't quite sunk in yet that the supposedly dead Deidara was _speaking _to her. When it finally did sink in, Telenei almost jumped on him.

A new kind of tears was now freely flowing down her cheeks as she threw her arms around his neck. "oh my god I can't believe you're alive, I thought you were dead…it though that there was nothing I could do to help you and…" Telenei spurted all in one breath until Deidara put a finger to her lips. "Well, as you can see I'm fine hm. But why try to save me? I put you in this mess in the first place hm." Deidara was frowning slightly. Telenei removed her arms from around his neck in order to look at him better. "You were following orders. It's not like you wanted to. I heard how Itachi forced you to join as well, so really we're in the same boat here." She said with a small shrug, looking into his eyes. "Besides how could I not? I…" She turned away now, her cheeks coloured about 750 shades of red. "No, never mind…" She smiled lightly.

Telenei's eyes widened as a pair of arms encircled her and pulled her closer. "You can tell me, hm." Deidara prodded. He was genuinely curious as to why she could care so much, especially when she spent so much time trying to pull pranks on him. "I just didn't want you to die…it would be way less fun without you here and plus I…" She hesitated, feeling her cheeks heating up from their intimate position. She took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. 'Well, here goes…' She thought. "I, I love you." She tilted her head forward to hide the blush creeping across her cheeks again. Deidara's hand under her chin forced her to look up. He was looking at her with a serious expression, a faint pink tinting his cheeks too. "You really like me, hm?" He asked. His tone indicated that he was slightly surprised by her confession, but his next action made his feelings on aforementioned confession quite clear. He continued to tilt her face upward until his lips brushed hers in a light kiss. "Thankyou, hm." He said in a whisper. "And I love you too, hm." Deidara cradled her in his arms as she rested her head on his shoulder, the moment only broken by Hidan's shouts of "Get a fucking room you fucking sluts" and Telenei's brief moment of getting up to punch "Jashin's bitch" in the face, with some expletives of her own.

**No, I could never, ever, never, ever, ever, never kill Deidara…ever… I couldn't. *huggles Deidara* Sorry I made you all think he was dead…I'm so evil ^_^**


	12. Through the Eyes of Another

**A/N: Ohh yes here is another chapter of the ficcie! Yayyy…coming to you direct from UNI! That's right, I'm writing this at school while I wait for our group meeting! Don't you feel special!**

**Ok, on to business. This chapter will basically be all about Mikari and what she did during the last chapter. I know I focused pretty much solely on Telenei and now I'm gonna focus on Mikari a bit more. **

Mikari knew that she'd had it rather lucky; she was able to heal Sasori despite her rusty healing jutsu. She went out of her room and went to go and see Tobi. She felt in the mood for some immature fun right now, and who better to assist her than her masked friend?

She spent several hours annoying Hidan and Kakuzu. She stole Hidan's scythe and ran around pretending to be him. "Oh, I'm Jashin-boy! You must all worship the ground my immortal feet walk on!" She yelled in her imitation, swinging the scythe around. She had a good time getting Tobi to sneak in and pester Kakuzu to the point where Kakuzu would hit him over the head, and Mikari would go in and beat him up.

She was making mischief this whole time to suppress the fact that she was worried Sasori wouldn't live. After she was done messing with the heads of some Akatsuki members she went back to her room. When she got there Telenei was gone and Sasori was sitting up, looking lazily around the room. "Don't push yourself." She warned gently.

"Hmm?" Sasori turned to look at her. "This is hardly pushing myself."

"I know, but just be careful, I didn't spend hours trying ho fix you up for you to just go and break yourself again." She said, a slight frown on her lips.

"You did this?" he asked. "I commend your patience."

"Yeah it wasn't easy!" She said, a smile beginning to form.

She helped him up and to his own cave-room. He didn't really want to rest, but she was going to make him rest anyway. "These things take time you know. You say you're all good now but you'll go to lift something heavy and you'll break your arm off!" She laughed at her own joke and was thoroughly surprised when Sasori did too. "You laughed." She stated with some astonishment.

"You are quite funny. How could I not laugh Mikari?"

"But you never laugh. You're a serious man!"

"I just did, didn't I?"

"Alright, you win this round puppet-man…but this is SO not over." She warned, backing out of the room with the 'I'm watching you' hand gesture.

Sasori smiled as Mikari left the room. He was different around her and he knew that. He knew that she brought out something in him that had perhaps always been there, but had just been hidden. He didn't think that this was necessarily a bad thing, but he knew to be cautious of it all the same.

Some time later Mikari returned to his room. He guessed she was coming in to check on him and make sure he wasn't "breaking an arm off".

"Nice to see you're still in-tact puppet-man." Mikari said with a playful tone.

"What are you doing back here?" Sasori asked her, pretending to be annoyed with her. He wanted sleep, but still wouldn't mind her company. "Uh, well, I'm just here to check on you and uh…yeah…" She trailed off.

"There's something more isn't there?" Sasori asked, crossing the room to Mikari. Mikari almost cursed his observational skills. "Deidara may not make it." Mikari said flatly. "Telenei tried her best. I saw her just then in the entrance…uh…cave, and she looks like a damned zombie." Sasori, who had been initially stunned by the probability of his partner's death, took Mikari in his arms. "Wouldn't you if you had a chance of losing the one you loved?" Mikari nodded.

"I guess I would."

"I know I would." Sasori said, catching Mikari off guard.

"So you've got a hot puppet-babe back in the Sand?" Mikari joked. Sasori shook his head with a laugh and Mikari could feel it vibrate though his wooden chest. "Not a 'hot puppet-babe.'" Sasori said, "Nor is she in the Sand. She's here with me now." Sasori made a bold move and placed a kiss on Mikari's cheek.

Mikari wasn't expecting the kiss. She pulled away from Sasori, taking a few steps back. Mikari flung herself at him and caught him in a full blown kiss that nearly knocked the pair of them over. "So I'm a hot human-babe?" Mikari asked when they'd parted. Sasori smiled at her. "Not _a_ hot human-babe, _my_ hot human-babe."

"Good." Mikari replied, glaring a little as Sasori ruffled her hair. "But don't think you've gotten out of being watched until you're better. Bed. Now." Mikari ordered with a smirk of pure evil.

**Hello again dearies. So it took me much longer to complete this one than it should have. It's quite a bit of work to be writing a novel, writing four fanfictions and writing Uni assignments all at once. That's why this took so long. Programming Assignment, Commtech assignment, and as you should all know (unfortunately) school comes first. I hope you enjoy this. Chapter 11 or whatever this is, direct from Uni. My precious Laptop, named Miku in case you're interested, is about to die, so I must go =]**


	13. mission to the Lightning country

**A/N: Ok, first off, I am REALLY sorry that I haven't updated in a while. **

**Secondly I have almost quite literally all the time in the world now so it shouldn't happen again. It wasn't easy trying to make the decisions for the next chapter, but, I've made some and the next chapter is finally out!**

**K, just remember I warped the storyline somewhat. At first I was going to make it so that Sasuke hadn't run off, that doodle head, but how else would he kill his brother? And plus I think some plot lines are starting to fall into place with this now. **

A few days later, all seemed well within the Akatsuki. The capture of the tailed beasts was going exactly as planned. Mikari and Telenei were sitting inside growing increasingly agitated. With Hidan and Kakuzu out on a mission the girls were bored, there was no-one for them to pick on. With Deidara, Sasori and Tobi gone, there was no-one for them to perv on, nor pull immature pranks with. Itachi and Kisame were also out demon hunting, but they'd already painted both their rooms neon pink so that ruled out that option. "I'm so bored." Mikari said loudly. "Yeah me too. I wonder what Naruto is doing right now." Telenei said with a hint of homesickness. She was trying to picture it now. Of course, what she was actually picturing was far from the truth.

Naruto was demanding that he be sent out to go and look for both the twins and Sasuke (who had recently run off in search of his brother and power) and bring them back. The Hokage wasn't exactly pleased with this idea, believing that they should be given more time to try and take them out. She didn't say anything to Naruto at the time, but after she had assigned Naruto to go and help Shikamaru deal with some of the Akatsuki members, she sat back in her chair with a small frown. She had somehow got the feeling that they wouldn't see the twins again. After all, two impressionable girls with a cave full of boys for such a long time, was bound to leave a mark on them.

Naruto went off with Sakura, Sai and their new captain in order to assist Shikamaru and co. By the time they finally arrived all the fighting was over with. Naruto was slightly annoyed, knowing that he could be using his time better. At that point in time he spared a thought for the twins, and how Shikamaru had just made their job so much easier.

Meanwhile the twins were being called upon by Konan. "The leader wishes to see you." She told them, leading the girls to Pein's chakra projection of himself. "I'm sending you out to try and find the eight tails Jinchuuriki. Don't make any move to capture it yet, just go and find it."

"Yes leader-sama." The twins replied in unison.

"_Finally! We get to see some action!" _Mikari said silently.

"_Well, not really." _Telenei replied _"We're only scouts, remember?" _Mikari shrugged.

"We should change into other clothes." Telenei said, trying to map out a strategy when they headed to collect their tools. "Why should we do that?" Mikari said, checking her supply of Kunai and Shuriken. "I want to avoid confrontation with people. It will be much easier to gather information if they don't think we're with Akatsuki." Telenei reasoned. Akatsuki was becoming more infamous by the day, and wearing the cloaks would only pull unwanted attention. "But I WANT confrontation!!" Mikari protested loudly. Telenei chuckled at her sister's straightforwardness. "That only ever got us into trouble before." Telenei stated, strapping on her pouch and leaving the room. Mikari followed behind her, unhappy with having to leave the cloaks behind.

After a few weeks with no whispers of the eight tails, they headed to the lightning country, hoping to find some information there. Telenei and Mikari stopped at a shop in an outpost town a short way away from the Hidden Cloud Village to get something to eat and drink. It had been a while since their last meal, and real ninjas can't survive on universe juice.

Mikari's stomach rumbled loudly as they waited for their order to be brought to them. "So, what are two girls doing all the way out here huh?" The waiter asked them as he brought their meals. "We're looking for someone, as for who we're looking for, well, that's our own business." Mikari answered before tucking in to her meal. The waiter left with a quick apology of not meaning to pry.

Telenei picked at her meal as she ate it, making sure to listen out for all the snippets of conversation. A snatch of conversation caught their ears, and their heads lifted. Telenei and Mikari looked at each other with surprise. "Yeah, yeah, I heard Raikage's brother is the eight-tails demon! He protects the village or something…" Mikari gave a slight smirk. "Doesn't he live in some secluded area or something?" Mikari and Telenei continued to listen in to the conversation, making sure to etch the details of the eight tails whereabouts into their heads.

After they'd finished their meals they paid the bill and left. Now that they had the information they needed, they'd head straight back to the hide-out to relay the information to Pein.

"It'll be good to get back." Mikari said as they travelled almost silently through the trees. Telenei nodded her agreement. She missed the lair. That was something both of them never thought they could miss, but miss it they did. Of course, that was nothing in comparison to how they felt about the Leaf village.

After several days of travelling without incident they were nearing the headquarters again. Both the girls knew they should be relieved but an uneasy feeling was setting in. They should probably have encountered some kind of good guy or bad guy by now…seeing as how they were now pretty much part of the evil guys.

The pair slowed down to take a break. Travelling for days non-stop took its toll on one's body. They sat on high tree branches to avoid being detected by passing travellers, merchants or other ninja in general.

The light thunking of feet hitting tree branches made the pair freeze. The sound faded so the girls relaxed a little and continued on their way, making sure to move more swiftly, yet more silently as they went, trying not to let their guard down.

A kunai that went sailing past their heads, missing their faces by mere centimetres made them stop again, drawing weapons in order to defend themselves.

**Once again I'm very very sorry this took so long. It sucks a little but I'm just building up the storyline. **


	14. A change in staff

**A/N: I know I said I'd update faster but I guess I just ran out of inspiration. A lot of trying things have been going on lately, especially in the "friendship" department. For now, I'm just trying to get my life back on track so I'm not making too many promises about fast updates. But enough of my life stories…its ficcie time…**

**Oh yes and… I DO NOT OWN NARUTO. The amount if times I forget to write this at the start of the chapters *shakes head* My sister and I do however own our respective twin….a.k.a. Tel and Mikari. **

Telenei held some shuriken in front of herself, while Mikari held some kunai while they waited silently for the attacker's next move. Instead of throwing any more weapons, the attacker merely stepped out from his hiding place.

When the girls saw familiar white hair they lowered their weapons. "Geez way to almost kill us you old pervert." Mikari said with a scowl that quickly turned into more of a smile. "I heard that you lovely ladies were going to be taking on Akatsuki." Jiraya stated.

"Well, in a manner of speaking, we are…what did you want so badly that you thought it was worth almost scarring our faces for?" Telenei asked, crossing her arms lightly over her chest.

"I'm here for information to send back to the leaf village. You two weren't that easy to track down."

"Well, what is it you want to know and we'll tell you what we can." Mikari said waving her hand with an air of impatience.

"What do you know about the leader?"

"Only that it's a he and for some reason tends to go by the name of Pein. You can do the rest of the digging yourself, pervy sage." Mikari answered quickly.

"we've never seen the guy. Only a very sketchy chakra projection. Now we've gotta get going." Telenei said and the pair jumped away from Jiraya and got back to making their way to HQ.

-x-x-x-

It took the girls a few more days to arrive but when they got back they reported their information to Konan so that she would relay it to Pein for them. They were tired and in no mood to be dealing with people right now.

"Hey, have you noticed something's a little off here?" Mikari asked as they walked back through the now exceedingly quiet halls of the Akatsuki hideout.

"It is pretty quiet. Wonder where everyone is…" Telenei said, trailing off as that usual feeling of foreboding sank in.

As they walked they crossed paths with their Akatsuki partners. "Hey you two, can you tell us what on earth is going on here? Something seems off." Mikari said as she went to stand by Sasori's side.

"Hidan and Kakuzu have been killed by leaf ninjas." The redhead replied simply.

"And Itachi's not long for the world either, hm. We heard that he and Sasuke are battling it out sometime soon." Deidara added with a bit more enthusiasm. After all, it was Itachi who had forced him to become a part of that organisation to begin with.

"Now why does that sound so entertaining?" Telenei asked, tapping a finger to her cheek. She always wondered if Sasuke would ever get the revenge he so constantly preached, and it turned out that perhaps he would after all.

-x-x-x-

Itachi had clearly been finished off by Sasuke, given that he had never returned to HQ and the girls had been so busy with scouting missions that neither of them had time to really think.

When they came back from one of their longer missions they immediately took turns in getting some rest. Telenei had only just drifted off when the pair was called upon again. "What is it, I'm tired." Telenei said with a yawn.

"You're needed on an assistance mission." Konan informed them. "We just assigned a team to go and capture the eight tails and now we're sending you out as back ups just in case. It may come down to demon fighting demon. If there is no need to step in, travel back to HQ. Understood?"

"Sure, sure. No problems." Mikari said, rubbing an eye.

The twins set out rather unhappily. Mikari and Telenei were constantly muttering under their breath about no-good, sleep stealing, blue haired witches.

-x-x-x-

"We must be nearly there." Telenei said as the sounds of a battle just starting up could be heard. Mikari nodded her agreement.

The pair reached a cliff face that looked down on the battle field. They both climbed some trees to get a better vantage point and to allow for some decent coverage from anyone that may just so happen to look up and see them.

When the pair saw the battle now getting under full swing, or rather who was fighting said battle their eyes almost popped out of their heads. "No way…is that…?" Mikari started, trailing off.

"Unless my eyes are deceiving me…it is…" Telenei responded, turning her attention back to the battle.

"Now this should be interesting indeed."

**Shorter chapter than the others, so my apologies but I had no idea where this was going and to be frank I still have no idea. If anyone has any suggestions they'd be greatly appreciated. **

**So reviews make me write faster…seriously they do. I wait for at least one review before writing the next chapter so imagine what more than one could do. **


	15. Releasing your inner demon 101

**A/N: Okay people this chapter might actually be pretty enjoyable. I've got a few things planned out for this chapter, so let's see how we go. **

**I can't say anything yet of course or that would spoil the story. **

**Read on and see.**

The duo watched as the trio on ground level was fighting against the eight tails Jinchuuriki. "Geez no wonder he's got the eight tails…look at that guy he's massive!" Mikari exclaimed.

"Fucking huge does come to mind." Telenei agreed. "But there's three of them onto this guy, so hopefully we won't need to get involved. I can't be bothered fighting."

-x-x-x-

"Well, it seems little Sasuke has become stronger in our absence." Telenei said, watching the battle with amusement.

"Yeah he has, but he's still getting his ass kicked." Mikari said with a wince. "Ooh, that had to hurt."

Telenei lazily twisted her ring round her finger. "I guess we should go help out then after all, not that the little squirts would enjoy that."

"Finally, I get some confrontation!" Mikari said excitedly. "All this training would want to have paid off."

"Yeah it'd wanna." Telenei agreed (with a twitching eye) momentarily reliving not so fond memories. "Let's get down there."

-x-x-x-

"I sense a really strong chakra." Karin said suddenly, snapping her head up. Sasuke turned his attention toward her. "How strong?" He asked monotonously. "Almost as strong as the eight tails." She responded quickly. Sasuke grunted his recognition. "Enemies?" He asked. Karin shrugged.

"I can't be sure."

"For the win, this is gonna score me massive brownie points!" Mikari exclaimed as the twins safely landed on the ground. Sasuke thought the voice sounded very familiar and whirled around, scowl set permanently in place, contorting his features. "What are you doing here?" He asked harshly.

"Well hello to you too..." Mikari grumbled, setting a similar scowl across her own face. "And here we come all this way to help you."

"We don't need your help." Sasuke said.

"Oh contraire, dear Sasuke-kun." Telenei interjected before the pair of them could start fighting. "You don't have a say, we're here on Pein-sama's orders."

Sasuke let a small growl escape his throat. He thought he'd definitely proven himself strong enough to be able to carry this out on his own.

"I don't care how strong you think you are." Telenei said, seemingly reading the raven-haired teen's thoughts. She held her arm out in front of him to prevent him from going to the fight, while Mikari made a strong wall of ice, shooting ice daggers through it occasionally. "This isn't an ordinary opponent." Telenei continued. "It's not going to be like fighting Itachi, or even Naruto when you were kids. This is a powerful jinchuuriki who actually works in co-operation with the demon contained inside of him. You stand no chance under those circumstances."

"The only way to beat it," Mikari interjected, "is by fighting demon with demon. That's why we're here."

Mikari let go of the jutsu to hold the ice wall in place, and called Telenei over to her. "This wall will only hold for a few more seconds before it shatters." Mikari warned. "We need to do this quickly." Telenei nodded and extended her hand toward Mikari, who took it in hers as they performed the seals that would put them in a deep enough sleep for their demon to be released.

The ground shook as the transformation took place, shattering the wall of ice that protected the group. It only took seconds, but soon, in the place of the twins was an ice white dragon, whose scales shimmered pale blue and fiery orange when the sun hit them.

The dragon stretched out, shaking its scales a bit like a giant dog. It let out a loud roar of approval at being released. Sensing the presence of the other demon the dragon lashed forward and launched a series of attacks. The eight tails only managed to counter the first two, before the dragon's attacks landed.

Sasuke and company were watching on. There wasn't much they could do as the giant demons grappled with each other. The dragon let out a shriek as the other demon managed to hit a section of flesh not covered by the armour like scales.

The dragon, now angered, took off into the sky, stopping a reasonable distance from the other demon. Sucking in a huge breath the demon readied itself to attack. It let out a huge burst of ice fire. The flames were the colour of ice and could either freeze or burn the opponent it was aimed at.

The attack hit the eight tails square on and froze it in place. The dragon let its self fall gracelessly to the ground, somewhat worn out from the attack, and the wound in its side, the gash still leaking silvery blood.

The dragon vanished, its job done, and gave control back to the twins, who were now standing, looking at the frozen eight tailed beast. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Mikari said, gesturing to the monster. "Let's get this frozen heap back to base before it unfreezes and kills the bloody lot of us."

"High five," Mikari said, turning to her sister, who returned the gesture, carrying out a secret handshake of sorts.

It took the entirety of the group to drag the large monster back to the hideout, where the Akatsuki's remaining members proceeded to extract the demon from its icy prison.

**Sorry one hundred million times over for the lack of updates. I plan on updating my stories a lot more often, but I got swept up into drawing. I've been doing so much of it lately that I actually craved writing, so here I am, writing again, and finishing a chapter that I must have started months ago. **

**To whoever out there who still reads this, thanks for sticking with my egregious updating habits. **


	16. Beginning of the end

**A/N: Holy heavens it's an update!**

**Shocking I know. It's been far too long since I updated this. Just to let you all know, this is probably the second to last chapter. Third to last if I include an epilogue, which is probable. I can never make up my mind when it comes to these things, that and the manga series itself isn't finished yet, though I don't think it could be too far off surely…**

**Anyway, this is only like a filler chapter of sorts. I wanted to take a break from the action and such.**

It was just your average day in the Akatsuki caves, except it was so much quieter. With so many members now dead or missing, the twins were wondering how long it would be before the rest of the Akatsuki would fold. It was putting the remaining members on edge.

Telenei and Mikari had taken to pacing the caves. There wasn't much else to do these days. They hadn't been assigned any missions for quite some time. Even though they were currently working for an evil organisation, the twins liked being sent on missions. It was much better than being cooped up inside.

It was on such a day that Mikari found herself wandering the caves, keeping an ear out for anything interesting. It wasn't long before she found it. She heard who could only be their leader and his right hand woman engaged in a conversation. Suppressing her chakra, Mikari crept closer.

"The old fool." Leader said. "He should have known better than to challenge me."

"_Hey, Telenei, listen to this." _Mikari said, using the twins' unique mental link.

"_Alright, I'm listening."_ Telenei responded. Judging by the bored tone of 'voice' Telenei was using, she wasn't with Deidara at the moment, which Mikari thought was handy. She didn't want to be interrupting anything, just like she knew Telenei didn't like interrupting her when she was spending quality time with her hot piece of puppet. The thought almost made her laugh, until she realised she was on a mission of espionage.

"I expected more from Jiraiya, he let himself slip." This caught both the twins' interest. Mikari could feel it through their mental link. "So, he's dead then?" Konan asked. A short silence followed. Mikari could feel her heart pounding inside of her chest, and knew her sister was just as eager to find out the answer. "Yes. I had no other choice. If the fool had just left it be, he might still be alive." There was no hint of remorse in his voice when he spoke.

Mikari put a hand to her chest. Shock and grief could be felt from both sisters as they found out the news. They broke their connection and Mikari went looking for her sister. She found her sitting in their shared room.

"You realise we're responsible for this." Telenei said the second Mikari entered the room. "We told him who the leader of the Akatsuki was, and he got killed fighting him." Mikari nodded. She couldn't help but wonder if he would still be alive if it weren't for them telling him. But, there was no point dwelling on the past. Now they needed to remain focused.

Telenei stood up and walked out of the room, pausing by Mikari for a second. "I'm going to go find out what they're planning." She said, answering her sister's unasked question. She needed to know what they were planning next. She didn't think that Pein would just leave it at that. After all, they still hadn't captured Naruto, and they were running out of both time and members.

A few hours later Telenei returned to their room. "I couldn't find out anything." She said with a sigh. "But I think they'll probably go after Naruto. After all, their mission seems to be capturing all the tailed beasts." Mikari nodded her agreement, placing a hand on her chin. "I guess we just have to wait a little longer."

"Well, there's no point sitting around in here. I'm going outside." Telenei said. Mikari could feel her sister's annoyance and let her go. Mikari left the room and went in search of something to do.

Telenei enjoyed the cool breeze. It was much better than the stale air of the caves. 'Winter must be coming.' She thought. Telenei used her chakra to create a small fire in the centre of her cupped hands. It was much more effective at heating than rubbing her hands together.

Telenei looked up when she both heard and felt someone sit down beside her. "So, I heard about what happened, hm." Telenei lowered her head back down and extinguished the flames by clenching her hand hard. "If I had known what was going to happen…" Telenei trailed off angrily. She heard Deidara give a sigh from beside her. "It gets worse, hm." Telenei looked back up at him, exasperation evident in her eyes. "They're getting desperate, hm. I heard they're going to destroy the entire leaf village." Telenei's eyes widened in horror and she stood up quickly, making her way back to the caves.

"_What's wrong?"_ Telenei heard Mikari's voice echo in her head. Mikari had been able to sense her feelings through their strong link.

"_It's not pretty. I'm coming to find you."_ Telenei answered back.

She had to blink a few times as her eyes adjusted to the darkness of the caves. Telenei immediately headed toward the room that the pair of them still shared. Mikari was waiting for her when she arrived. "So what's going on?" Mikari asked, the second her sister came into sight. Telenei held up a finger while she caught her breath. "There's no delicate way to say this." Telenei said with a grimace. "They're gonna destroy Konoha." The room was filled with silence for a few seconds as Telenei's statement sunk in. "What? We have to do something…warn them or something…" Mikari sounded just as frantic as Telenei felt.

"I know." Telenei responded, sweeping her purple hair out of her face. "But we'll never get there in time…well, if we left now we might…" A shared look between them was all it took for the pair of them to grab their packs and pouches and secure them before dashing off.


	17. Race to save the Leaf!

**A/N: Oh god. I am sorry. How many years has it been now? But the urge to finish this story just came upon me today and so I finished it, even though I'm sitting around on my summer vacation at the beach, I still couldn't help but to switch my computer on and get typing. You have my cousin to thank for that. Her eagerness to see the story finished was motivation enough to get me off my lazy backside. **

**I have absolutely no excuse for not finishing this story, other than, for a good long while, I felt like I outgrew it, but I love my characters, and re-found my interest in this story and I'm so happy to be presenting this to you after such a long, long time. **

**Originally, this was supposed to be the last chapter…but now there's one more, and an epilogue yet to come. Talks of a sequel are in the works. **

The trip back to Konoha was not an easy one, and the twins' nerves were stretched to the limit as they raced back toward their village. They hadn't particularly wanted to leave the way that they did, and both of them sincerely hoped that their respective partners would understand. Neither of them wanted to think back to the way they had just rushed out, with barely a word to the ones that they loved as they tried to save a village that probably thought of the both of them as traitors.

"Look, there it is." Mikari said as they saw the gates of their village in the distance.

"We might just make it in time." Telenei responded with a short nod. Both of them were feeling something that they had not felt since they had begun their journey…hope.

The two girls began to slow their pace as they approached the village gate, dressed in the gear that they had worn upon being captured in the sand village. That particular incident had felt like a lifetime ago now. The twins didn't even know if they would be allowed entry, but they hoped the fact that they bore urgent news would override the fact that they had been working for an S-ranked criminal organisation.

The gates were open as usual, and the twins, having ditched their Akatsuki cloaks, were able to pass through without too much attention being paid to them, though they knew they would have to stop at the stand in which the two gatekeepers Izumo and Kotetsu were stationed.

As they approached, the two gatekeepers lifted their heads. There was a moment of blank looks before surprise crossed each man's features.

"What?" Mikari said with some amusement. "It's not like we're ghosts or anything…"

"Though," Telenei added thoughtfully, "we have been living inside a cave for a good long while now, so perhaps we are a bit pale…"

Once the shock of the twins' sudden appearance wore off, the two gatekeepers swept quickly out from behind the stand. It was Telenei and Mikari's turn to be surprised as the gatekeepers wasted no time binding their wrists behind their backs and putting Kunai to their throats.

'_What the hell is going on here?!'_ Mikari questioned, telepathically. The only sign that Telenei had heard her was when Telenei flicked her eyes over to her sister.

'_They think we're traitors.'_ She responded evenly. They should have expected this. How could they disappear for months on end and not be thought of as such. Especially once Naruto had seen them dressed in the traditional Akatsuki cloak. No doubt he'd reported seeing them, and rumours had to have spread since then.

"What's going on here?" Telenei asked aloud, doing her best to keep her voice steady, even though it so badly wanted to shake. They had important news to deliver, and if they took a detour through the prison it might be too late.

"You've been declared S Rank criminals." Izumo said. His voice betrayed nothing, so the twins could not tell what would happen to them next.

"As expected, I suppose." Mikari said with a sigh.

"So what happens next?" Telenei said, still very much aware of the small knives pressed to their flesh.

"You're getting taken directly to the Hokage. Her orders." Kotetsu responded.

The twins shared a sidelong glance trying not to give anything away in their expressions. Finally, something was going right. They would be able to explain their actions and tell their story directly to Tsunade, rather than have to go through guards and interrogators. It was certainly better than having to fight through an entire village full of ninja…most of whom were their friends.

The gatekeepers led them through the village. The twins didn't know if they were taking them down the main roads to show them off, or just to get them out of sight quicker, but either way they soon arrived at the big red building that housed the Hokage.

Getting out of the hot sun was almost a blessing, but knowing what would come next was not at all a pleasant thought. The twins had seen Tsunade kick Naruto out of her office with barely a flick of her fingers to his forehead…what would she do to them if she decided that they should be punished immediately?

Another short while later they reached the door to the Hokage's office. Izumo reached up a fist and knocked on the door with two short, sharp taps. The door opened a crack and a strip of Shizune's face became visible. Seeing who was on the other side of the door, Shizune shut the door with a snap, going to tell Tsunade of their visitors.

Barely a minute had passed before she returned, swinging the door wide. The familiar sight of Tsunade's office greeted them, as well as the stern woman sitting behind the desk.

Telenei and Mikari stared at her impassively, and Tsunade stared back, her face giving away nothing of what she was feeling. There was only one other person present in the room, and the sight of him made the twins uneasy. Ibiki was not one to be crossed. They had learned that during the Chuunin exams, many years ago.

"Izumo, Kotetsu, you're dismissed." Tsunade said with a nod to teach gatekeeper. They each bowed back and left the room, presumably heading back to man their posts once more. Tsunade then turned her gaze on the twins. Had they not have spent the past few months running around with S Rank criminals they probably would have been intimidated, but they found Pein much more intimidating than the woman sitting before them, even if she did look rather angry.

"Girls." The one word cut through the silence. Each twin could feel her sister's impatience through the mental link that bound them together. They knew, however, that it would be stupid to try and speak before the Hokage was ready for them to do so. Instead, they waited for her to continue.

"You had a mission." Tsunade said, "One mission. To help bring down the Akatsuki. Instead, you've been helping them accomplish their goals and bringing them closer to the other Jinchuuriki, closer to Naruto." Tsunade kept her voice even, though the anger that sparked under those words was still evident. "Even Jiraiya, who was following _your _intelligence, ended up dead."

The girls looked down guiltily at this. The thought still haunted them and they hadn't exactly had the time to come to grips with it.

"Leaf Shinobi have taken down more Akatsuki members than the both of you, even though you claimed that you would be leading the attack from the inside." Tsunade continued, making them feel worse than they already had, but they also had a spark of pride for their comrades at having taken down the immortals Hidan and Kakuzu. "Because of these actions, I have had no other choice than to brand you S Class criminals, and traitors to Konoha. What do you have to say to this?"

"We deserve it, we get that." Mikari said, glad for the chance to finally talk, "But we didn't come here to turn ourselves in or be arrested." She continued.

"Then what did you come here for?" Ibiki said from behind Tsunade. He regarded them coolly, wondering whether or not they would be a threat to them should they choose to attack.

"We have information; highly important, time sensitive information." Telenei continued. "And we'd like to tell it to you before it's too late." At this she sent an annoyed glance at both the interrogator and the Hokage. "Then, and only then, will we explain our actions."

"Get talking then." Tsunade said, sounding weary.

"Okay, okay. Tch, anyone would think we came here to kill you with attitude." Mikari said, her look mirroring her twin's.

"I was speaking with a member of our group when he confided in me that it was the plan of the leader of the Akatsuki to -" The sound of screaming reached their ears as Telenei spoke.

"What…?" Tsunade said, heading out to her window to see if she could determine the cause.

"Fuck it." The twins swore in unison, sounding very much like Hidan for a moment. "He's already here." Mikari finished.

"We need to get out there…now!" Telenei said as they began running from the room.

"Where are you going?" Ibiki said, moving to block their path.

"ARE YOU AN IDIOT OR WHAT?!" Mikari practically screamed. "Pein is here right now!" She continued, regaining her composure a fraction.

"He intends to destroy the Leaf Village." Telenei said more calmly. "And he intends to do it now."

There was a few seconds where it had seemed like everyone had frozen at the purple haired girl's words, and then all four of them burst into action. They ran out of the Hokage's office and out on to the street.

People were running everywhere, searching for lost children or trying to get home to protect their loved ones. The ninja that were in the village were heading off in all directions to try to find the source of the disturbance and eliminate it. Only Telenei and Mikari remained frozen in their places, scanning the familiar city for any trace of their leader.

"This world shall know pain…" The deep voice immediately caught their attention and they turned their gazes skyward. They could see Pein floating in the air above the village, his arms raised in the air. The swirling chakra of some jutsu they had never seen before was gathering between them. The name of the jutsu was lost to them over the commotion, but that didn't matter.

"We can't stop him!" Mikari shouted over the commotion at her sister.

"There's nothing more we can do here." Telenei agreed. She closed her eyes in resignation. They could not counter this jutsu and they knew it.

Telenei spent a brief moment thinking about Deidara and the time they had spent together since she joined the Akatsuki. She missed him tremendously, even more so since the last time she had seen him was before they ran back to the village to try and save it. She wished that she had have said more to him, especially since it was looking like she was going to die here anyway. She would have given anything to see him just once more and tell him that she would always love him.

Beside Telenei, Mikari was thinking about much the same things. She had not expected that she would find love within the Akatsuki, much less with Sasori, but she had. She didn't have the opportunity to see him before she left and she was wondering what he was thinking about right now. Was he thinking that she had betrayed the Akatsuki, betrayed him? She hoped not. She would hate to die here with something bitter like that between them. Surely he had to know that she loved him above all else.

With the thoughts of those that they loved in their heads, they opened their eyes to face the jutsu head on. They reached for each other's hands, which they had not done since they were twelve. They gave each other a sidelong glance as the mass of chakra headed toward the village, obliterating everything in its path and sending debris flying high into the air. Letting out a deep breath, both girls braced themselves for the impact.

It felt like a crushing weight pressing down on them, and then there was blackness.


	18. At the End of the World

**A/N: Ok, now this one really is the last chapter. Of course, there's still the epilogue, if I don't get this out of the way. I want to say that my writing style has improved and changed a lot since I began this story in 2008/9 I'm not quite sure which year. If this chapter doesn't flow quite the same as the rest of the story, I do apologise. I hadn't meant to take such a big gap.**

Everything was black when the twins opened their eyes.

All they could see was each other in the crushing darkness. It made them feel as though they'd gone blind.

'_Where are we?'_ Mikari asked. Their mental telepathy still worked in wherever this place happened to be.

'_I think we're … dead.'_ Telenei responded, looking around them. It made little difference.

'_Perhaps, then, this is like some kind of purgatory? I thought there was supposed to be more than this.'_ Mikari said, pouting slightly. If this was all there was to death, then she was sure as hell going to find a way out of it. Life was much more entertaining.

A small pinprick of light in the distance caught their attention.

'_What do you suppose that is?' _Telenei asked, heading towards it. Suddenly, Mikari's hand was on her arm, pulling her back.

'_Don't go towards the light! Everybody knows that there's no coming back from that.'_

'_Pft. That's better than this though, isn't it? Just blackness? If we're dead, we may as well go to the light…and then we can wait for Deidara and Sasori there.'_ Telenei reasoned. She felt her heart clench at the thought of Deidara. How would he ever find out that she was gone? What would he think? Judging by the look on Mikari's face, she was thinking something similar.

'_Fine. Let's go.'_ Mikari conceded. Going toward the light felt like such a permanent thing and she wasn't ready for that yet. She still wanted to do so much in life.

Clutching each other's hands like young girls, they walked forwards.

It felt as though it had been hours and it seems they had barely made any progress toward the light. It had gotten a little bigger as they made their way towards it.

'_It's a fire.'_ Mikari said suddenly. Telenei looked closer and saw that she was right. Instead of the light they had been expecting, there was the flickering of flames.

'_If that's hell, let's just stop here.' _Telenei said flatly. _'There is no way in hell that we're going to, well, hell.'_

'_Well said.'_ Mikari responded. She had no intention of going there either.

They decided to get a little bit closer to the fire to determine if it really was the entrance to hell. When they got close enough to determine exactly what it was, they could turn back quickly if it was something bad.

As they got closer, the blackness around them began to take shape. Instead of blackness underneath their feet, there was lush green grass, and instead of the blackness surrounding them on all sides, there were trees, like the forests around Konoha. The light they had determined was a fire was in fact a campfire.

"_Wait, who's that?' _Telenei said, squinting her eyes against the light, hoping to see the figures silhouetted against it.

'_I'm…not sure…'_ Mikari replied, also squinting her eyes.

They moved closer to the fire in the hopes of seeing the mysterious figures. All of a sudden, the outlines became horribly familiar.

"Deidara?" Telenei asked out loud, finding that she actually had the ability in this strange world.

"Sasori?" Mikari echoed. The two smiled at them in response.

"We've been waiting." Sasori said, indicating a log bench that they hadn't noticed before.

"But, why are you here?" Mikari questioned, her eyes wide with disbelief.

"You aren't dead, are you?" Telenei asked, hoping against hope that they weren't dead.

"We're here because you need us to be, un." Deidara responded gently.

"Need you to be…?" Telenei questioned again.

"Yeah."

"I don't understand." Mikari frowned.

"You will." Sasori promised her.

"I trust you." Mikari responded from across the fire.

"I'm glad." Sasori answered, a small smile curving his lips.

"So, you're not really dead then?" Telenei clarified, walking a few steps toward Deidara, placing her hand gently against his cheek.

"No, we're still alive." Deidara responded. "Which is why you need to listen to me, Telenei." Deidara put his hand on her opposite cheek.

"…Anything." She responded silently just glad that he was alive and not a part of the blackness that she was trapped in.

"This is going to be hard for you to do, okay, but you need to promise me…"

"Promise you what?" She asked.

"That you'll do what I ask of you, un."

"Well, that depends on what that is." Telenei responded.

"You need to come back to us now. Both of you. Come back to us."

"What…?" She asked.

"I need you to come back to me…to the real me…can you do that?" He asked.

"But I…I don't know how." She said, her brow furrowing.

"Trust me, Telenei."

"Always."

Deidara drew her close and placed his lips on hers, drawing her into a slow kiss. She could feel the love he felt for her in that kiss and tried to return that feeling. She could feel a pull in her heart and knew that this was how she was supposed to go back.

Over the other side of the fire, Sasori drew Mikari close. He felt soft against her, so she knew that this was not her Sasori, but the Sasori he had been before he had transformed his body into a puppet.

"You need to go back now too." He whispered as he wrapped his arms around the girl he loved. "I miss you more than you could know, Mikari, and I need you to come back to me. Will you?"

"Do you even have to ask?" She laughed. "I would follow you anywhere." She threw her arms around Sasori's neck and crashed their lips together. "I want to be with you no matter what." She said as she pulled her lips away for a second, before returning them to their previous position.

The world around them started to swirl from a lush forest into blackness again, though neither of them noticed as they were otherwise occupied.

Telenei's eyes fluttered as the cool breeze shifted her hair, which tickled her cheeks. Her eyes snapped open to unfamiliar surroundings.

"Telenei! Mikari!"

"Naruto?"

"Believe it!" Naruto responded. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, we're okay." Mikari said from beside Telenei as she too sat up. "World's biggest headaches, but we're okay."

It was at this moment when they looked around them and realised that the place in which they were sitting was a now destroyed Konoha.

"Pein did this, didn't he?" Telenei asked.

"Yeah…" Naruto said, gripping Hinata's hand tighter.

"Please tell me that bastard got what he deserved for killing us." Mikari said

"He's dead." Naruto said.

"Naruto…we're so sorry." Telenei apologised. "We never meant for any of this to happen. Not Jiraiya, not this…" – She waved her hand around the remains of the Leaf Village – "We wanted to come back…we wanted to fix it…"

"It's okay." Naruto said with a sad smile. "You did lots of good things too. You gave us Gaara back, you gave us good information. Can't help the way things turn out sometimes."

"I think, Naruto, that that is the most mature thing you've ever said." Mikari said, launching across the distance that separated her from Naruto.

"Heh, gee thanks Mikari-chan." Naruto said, rubbing the back of his head.

Over the course of the next few weeks the twins stayed around to help repair as much as they could of the leaf village. Occasionally people would still look at them like they were criminals, which, they reminded themselves, they had been branded as such. Still, the people that they cared for treated them no differently.

When as many of the repairs were done as the citizens could manage without outside resources, the twins decided that it would be time for them to leave. It was a very difficult decision for them to leave again, but the people that ley loved above all else were still out there, waiting for them, perhaps looking for them.

"You could stay." Tsunade told them as they stopped at the gate.

"No, we can't." Telenei said with a sad smile.

Tsunade fixed them with a knowing smile, but her expression suddenly turned stern. "If you leave, you'll still remain S Class criminals."

"We know." Mikari said. "But we don't have a choice. We'll try to keep our noses clean."

"No promises though." Telenei said with a laugh. "Demons and all."

"I'll give you a three day head start." Tsunade smiled. "So I hope you've said goodbye to everyone."

"Maybe one day we'll be able to come back." Telenei responded looking up at the Hokage faces. "Konoha will always be home to us."

"Always." Mikari agreed as the girls shook hands with Tsunade and headed for the gates.

"I wonder if we ever really will come back…" Mikari said, taking one last look at the gates with its giant painted characters reaching from top to bottom.

"I hope so." Telenei responded as the pair turned from the green gates and walked into the forest, possibly for the last time.


	19. Epilogue

**A/N: Is this an epilogue? Yes it is. **

**The last…ever… chapter of close your eyes to see. I admit, I've had some good times with this story, and with the characters, though looking back on it now, I sometimes wonder what on earth I was thinking when my younger sister and I set out on this venture. It makes me a little sad to think that it's finished, but there are still thoughts chasing themselves around my head that have to do with a sequel. I still don't know if I want to listen to them or not. It's hard for me to decide. If I did, it would be the same characters, but a new type of storyline, one that doesn't follow the story, and the characters, Telenei and Mikari would be reinvented a bit. **

**I stray in and out of fandoms all the time, but I'm glad I came back to Naruto so I could finally finish this off. I owe it to anyone who has read this story/alerted it/faved it…not that I think anyone reads it anymore, but it will still be good to know that this is done.**

The feel of her hair being brushed off her face forced Telenei to open her mismatched eyes.

"Good morning." Deidara said, a slight smile across his face as he saw her look up at him.

She responded in kind, also smiling. It had only been days since she and Mikari had reunited with Deidara and Sasori, their paths crossing about four days from the Hidden Leaf Village. Both girls had apologised profusely for leaving without saying a word, and thankfully, their respective partners had understood. They were back now, and that was what mattered.

Telenei thought she could get used to waking up like this, given that she very rarely got to be the one being woken up at all. Both she and Mikari, as well as Sasori and Deidara were staying in an outpost town, far away from any ninja villages that might recognise the four of them for who they really were – S Rank criminals.

At first, the twins thought it might be difficult to be branded as criminals, but it wasn't as difficult as they had expected at all. Perhaps Tsunade had in part forgiven them for seemingly abandoning their village and carrying out the wishes of an elite criminal organisation instead, as they hadn't encountered any leaf ninja sent specifically to track them down and bring them to whatever justice awaited them if they strayed too close to the village again.

Telenei and Mikari both knew that they would miss their hometown and their friends, but at least they could still be with the people they were in love with. Telenei wished, every now and then, that there was a way that she could have both, but she knew the path she had chosen, and she knew the risks associated. Certain sacrifices needed to made, and so they were, no matter how heavy her heart had been in doing so. She knew she would rather be with Deidara and an exile than accepted once more into the village after having known him and having loved him as she did. She would make the choice one hundred times over…even if it meant getting her ass kicked like she did back in the sand before she had been forced to join.

She had had some of the best times she could remember within the group, and for a moment she let herself remember those they had lost. She gave a snort of disgust at herself when she realised she even missed – to an extent – Hidan, who was currently buried somewhere underground. He could rot there for a while longer…who knows, maybe one day she'd try to find a way to dig him back out again, but for now, she was content to let him learn a lesson – Never, ever, mess with Leaf Ninja.

The feel of Deidara's lips on her forehead broke her from her silent ruminations.

"Breakfast." He reminded her, laughing when she stared blankly up at him. "Mikari and Danna are already downstairs…" He said.

Telenei sighed and heaved herself from the bed that they shared. She didn't bother changing. They all slept in clothes in case they were discovered and had to make a quick getaway. Life of the run was exhausting, mentally, more than physically. Having to sleep with one eye open to make sure that no-one was sneaking in on them to kill them during the night was taxing, and sometimes the frayed nerves began to show, but for the most part, they were happy.

"Bout time you got up." Mikari snorted as her sister entered the kitchen.

Telenei surveyed all the food that was laid out on the table. She raised a single eyebrow in question. They didn't need their telepathic link for Mikari to know what her sister was implying.

"Nights are long and boring." Mikari answered with a half whine. "I don't have much else to do _but _cook."

She knew that when Mikari did stay up all night, letting her sister have a chance to sleep, Sasori stayed up all night with her anyway, not having a human body and therefore not requiring the same amount of rest. Of course, there was still chakra that had to be replenished, but without a physical body to get tired, sleep was almost unnecessary.

Regardless, Telenei sat down next to her sister, Deidara on her other side, like Sasori was with Mikari, and she stacked a plate with some of her sister's cooking. Neither of them were the best chefs in the world, but they could make do, and when you were hungry, food was food. So far, they had spent every morning like this, deciding to all stay in the one small house. It was too weird for them all to be apart after living in the hideout together so they had reached the decision with ease.

Over their food and usual breakfast time banter Telenei looked over at her sister, just a ways around the square, worn table. Mikari met her gaze and knew that int hat moment they were both thinking the same thing:

They would be okay.

Despite living their lives on the run, despite having to give up their home and their friends, they were happy. Happier than either of them could remember being for a long time. Of course, it was going to be hard. They both knew that. The life they had chosen was fraught with dangers, but the fact that they had chosen it – that they had had the choice at all now, was all that mattered.

Despite everything that had happened to them, and was likely to happen to them in the future, they knew that they'd be okay.

As long as they were together and with the ones that they loved, life couldn't possibly be so bad…


End file.
